Press Release:
Tampa- Rock Brothers Brewing Company has announced that it has created a custom craft beer for the Jacksonville, Florida native, musician JJ Grey.
Grey is the second musical act to partner with the Tampa-based Rock Brothers Brewing, a company that is creating microbrews for musicians across the country.
“We’re really excited to partner with JJ because his band has great name recognition and a very supportive fan base,” said Tony Casoria, a co-founder of Rock Brothers Brewing. “We expect this beer to be really well-received when it hits the market in November.”
True to its model, Rock Brothers will distribute the custom craft beer only in an act’s home state.
“We’re focused on quality, not quantity,” Casoria said. “That’s the craft beer way.”
Grey’s custom beer will be an ale, and it will be called JJ Grey’s Nare Sugar Brown, according to Kevin Lilly, also a co-founder of Rock Brothers Brewing, Grey’s grandfather inspired the name.
“JJ’s grandfather drank coffee without sugar, or ‘nare sugar’ as he called it,” Lilly explained, “and that stuck with JJ throughout his life.” Lilly said Nare Sugar has a sweetness to it, but it is made without sugar.
The process of creating and naming the beer was a bit of a surprise to Grey.
“I thought Cigar City would let me taste a couple of beers, pick one, then put it out,” Grey said. “Instead, we sat down and talked about it for a while, and during that conversation I was educated on how artful brew mastering really is. We all put our heads together and then these guys went out and created the beer from scratch. The whole process was amazing and I feel really lucky to have been a part of it. In the end, I think I think they made a beer that somehow matches my music sip for sip (or chug) and note for note.”
Nare Sugar Brown’s official release date is the weekend of November 1st and 2nd, when JJ Grey and Mofro perform at Jannus Live in Tampa Bay, Florida and at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As an additional charitable component to this venture, JJ Grey and Rock Brothers Brewing will donate five percent of the net proceeds of Nare Sugar Brown sales to the Snook and Gamefish Foundation, a not-for-profit 501-3-c corporation that serves as a platform for anglers and conservationists to preserve, protect, and enhance game fish populations.
The band Have Gun, Will Travel was the first partner with Rock Brothers in May, and its custom brew, High Road Ale won the U.S. Open Beer Tasting Championship’s National Grand Championship in the Pale Ale category in June.