(San Marcos, CA) – 2011 National Homebrewing Conference Champion, Paul Sangster, revealed on The Brewing Network on Sunday that he is starting up a new brewery with a few partners in San Marcos, California (not far from Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey).

They are calling it Rip Current Brewing, playing heavily on the local surf theme.

Sangster said that they will be draft-only at the beginning, placing a large emphasis on a variety of beers in their tasting room.

Rip Current will start out with a Premier 15 barrel system consisting of: a 15 barrel brite tank, a 30 barrel brite tank, two 30 barrel fermenters, and a 15 barrel fermenter. Rip Current will also have a 20 gallon pilot system for one-offs, sours and barrel-aged specialties.

A hoppy ‘West Coast-style Red’ and an American IPA will likely be among the first styles brewed.

Sangster had hoped to be open around the time of Craft Brewers Conference in early May but conceded that it would be a “tall order” at this point.

Rip Current is hiring an assistant brewer which will allow Sangster to keep his day job while things get going.

Below is more info on Sangster’s 2011 NHC win. Also check out his appearance on New Brew Thursday last June (video below).

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Paul Sangster, a resident of Carlsbad, CA and a member of QUAFF homebrew club, recently claimed the Ninkasi Award, named for the Sumerian goddess of beer, given to the winningest brewer in the 33rd annual American Homebrewers Association (AHA) National Homebrew Competition—the world’s largest beer competition. This year’s competition had 6,996 total entries. The competition award winners were announced on June 18th in San Diego at the awards banquet during the American Homebrewers Association’s National Homebrewers Conference.

With one gold medal, and one silver medal, Sangster was in a 3-way points tie with John Aitchison (one gold medal and two bronze medals) of Northridge, CA, and David Motter (one gold medal and a silver medal) of Peoria, IL as the winningest brewers in the Final Round of the competition. Sangster’s 9 winning entries in the First Round of the competition (used as the tie-breaker in the Ninkasi Award) proved decisive, earning him the competition’s top prize, the Ninkasi Award, named for the Sumerian goddess of beer. Sangster earned his gold medal for his Eisbock (a strong, dark, malty lager style), and the silver medal for his Best Bitter (an English pale ale style).

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