The past, the present and the future are all irrelevant, but that doesn’t mean I’m not hyped on a new beer collaboration between hip-hop duo Run the Jewels and St. Petersburg’s very own Green Bench Brewing Co.
This week, the band—in conjunction with the Beer Kulture nonprofit Green Bench co-owner and brewer Khris Johnson is a part of—announced the “Never Look Back” rice lager, which will see distribution in Atlanta, New York and St. Pete.
“We made a 30 barrel batch, and we’re looking at a Labor Day launch for brewery-only distribution,” Johnson—who was just named a Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40” Tastemaker—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
The beer is just 4.6% ABV, so you can probably drink a bunch of the Khrispy Bois before feeling an uncontrollable urge to turn on RTJ2 and canvass the fuck out of the neighborhood on behalf of your favorite local candidate.
“It’s easy drinking, effervescent, dry and built for drinking,” Johnson told CL, adding that he can’t remember who contacted who first when it comes to the brewery’s relationship with Run the Jewels.
“We’d been talking for a few months via the nonprofit, talking about visions and getting to know each other,” Johnson explained.
Founded in 2017, Beer Kulture works on both the consumer and Industry side of craft beer to bring a new demographic the pleasures of craft beer. One of the organizations main goals is to open doors for Black creatives to freely walk into the industry as consumers, organizers and professionals.
“Then we started talking about brewing a beer, and they’d made IPAs and stouts which is well and good, but they said, ‘We also want to drink a light lager.’”
Stay tuned for more details as the release day approaches.
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