Riip Beer Co. was born out of the Southern California lifestyle we grew up loving — surfing, skateboarding, being at the beach, hanging with friends and family, and chasing the SoCal lifestyle we never wanted to lose.
What started as a family business idea between two brothers-in-law obsessed with good craft beer began with us homebrewing in a garage. At the time, we had no clue what this thing would eventually become. We were just having fun making beer we actually wanted to drink and trying not to completely screw it up.
From day one, we built Riip together from the ground up. It was never just about beer — it was about family, creativity, taking risks, laughing through the chaos, and building something with the people closest to us.
We didn’t have investors, business degrees, or some polished five-year plan hanging on a wall. We just had passion, stubbornness, and probably way too much confidence for two guys brewing beer in a garage with tiny tanks, random pots, and makeshift setups that honestly looked more like a science project than a brewery.
One of the craziest things we did early on — and something that really became part of the Riip identity — was using a vintage 1931 Helms Bakery coach truck to hand-deliver glass growlers of beer directly to people’s homes. Long before beer delivery was a thing, we were driving around town delivering fresh craft beer door-to-door out of this old bread truck.
Most people in the brewing industry thought we were completely insane. To be fair… they probably weren’t wrong. But doing things differently became part of who we are. Riip was built through long nights, family support, trial and error, creativity, sacrifice, and a refusal to quit. We embraced being different. At the time, we were probably one of the smallest — and definitely one of the weirdest — breweries around.
Then somehow things got real.
Winning at our very first Great American Beer Festival entry in the IPA category — basically the Super Bowl of beer and one of the hardest categories to win — suddenly put us on the national map. People started asking, “Who the hell are these guys?”
That moment changed everything.
From there, Riip kept growing, and we continued winning major awards year after year. We are proud to be recognized by:
At that point, people started realizing our beer wasn’t just hype — it was legit. We think what made it even more respected was how we built it: independently, without giant investor money, without selling out creative control, and by doing things the hard way every single step of the process.
Eventually, we built our brewery and first taproom. Back then, we relied on neighboring food spots while we focused on building a community around the beer, the atmosphere, and the culture we wanted Riip to represent.
Then, in 2022, we opened our first Riip Beer & Pizza (Magnolia/South HB) restaurant concept. We wanted it to feel like the pizza parlors we grew up going to in the ‘90s — arcade games, pizza, craft beer, wine, good music, and a place where literally anybody could walk in and feel comfortable. Families, surfers, skaters, locals, beer nerds, kids running around high on soda and arcade games — everybody. Honestly, the response blew us away.
The success of the first restaurant led us to open a second location across town in 2024, Riip Beer & Pizza (PCH).
Both of our pizzerias sit inside iconic Huntington Beach buildings that already have a ton of history behind them:
Those were big shoes to fill. Like… really big shoes. But we embraced that pressure and did everything we could to honor the history of those places while creating something new for the next generation of Huntington Beach memories.
Today, Riip continues to evolve, but at its core, it’s still about the same thing it was back in the garage days: family, community, creativity, and making places that feel real and welcoming.
Whether you’re stopping by after a surf, bringing your kids in for pizza and arcade games, meeting friends for beers, or visiting us for the first time, our goal has always stayed the same — to make a place that feels like home.
