Run The Jewels and Brooklyn Brewery debut their 36″ Chain beer  

By Scott Lynch

From left: Garrett Oliver, El-P, and KIller Mike (Scott Lynch)

Looking to keep the party going after El-P and Killer Mike’s epic five-night RTJ run at Madison Square Garden with Rage Against the Machine this week? How about spending the rest of the summer drinking their beer? Specifically: the limited edition Run the Jewels and Brooklyn Brewery double-pilsner collab, 36″ Chain, which was officially unveiled last night in Williamsburg.

“We really wanted to get together with these guys because of their commitment to social responsibility,” Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery, tells Brooklyn Magazine. The brew, he says “is kind of double pilsner,” and it’s also 10 percent fonio, an ancient grain that grows throughout West Africa, which historically had been stripped out by colonial powers but is now making a comeback, grown by indigenous African farmers.

‘A little bit of nuttiness, but some bitterness too, and plenty of fruit’ (Scott Lynch)

“Growing fonio requires no imports,” Oliver says. “It doesn’t require irrigation, it doesn’t require pesticides, it doesn’t require fertilizers, it’s full of minerals, it’s kind of an African supergrain, and so for the future of the planet it’s great. I can taste that in this beer but for me personally it also has a cultural meaning, and when I first talked to the Run the Jewels team they all already knew about fonio too.”

The name 36″ Chain comes from RTJ’s debut single — click here for the 2013 video, co-starring the rodenty Mr. Killums — and the can’s design is by contest winner Matt C. Harvey, chosen by El-P and Killer Mike from hundreds of entries last spring.

Nice cans: The winning design (Scott Lynch)

The party at Brooklyn Brewery last night was packed with RTJ fans and assorted scenesters, with rap-heavy sets from DJs Little Shalimar, Trackstar, and Nick Hook keeping things thumping. There were free 36″ Chain t-shirts printed on-site by Volcom, free nachos, and, of course, lots of free beer.

Volcom screen printed free t-shirts for everyone (Scott Lynch)

“This beer is fucking amazing,” said Chelsea resident Cooper Sebastian. “I love it. I’m not a crazy beer drinker but this is the first time I’ve actually been able to finish four different cups of beer and not have to worry about the aftereffects. It’s gone down really easy and at the same time it’s gotten me on the level I need to be on.”

So we guess the message here is simple. If you, too, want to walk around like you got a 36″ chain, you should drink 36″ Chain, while blasting “36″ Chain.”

“It’s a light beer in its overall taste,” says brewmaster Oliver. “Malt-forward, the fonio’s giving it some fruity kind of characteristics, kind of lychee fruit, and then also almost a sake-type of bitterness, and then at the end, if you pay attention, a little bit of a touch of unbuttered popcorn, a little bit of nuttiness. I love this stuff. It tastes like Brooklyn. A little bit of nuttiness, but some bitterness too, and plenty of fruit.”

Killer Mike rapped a few bars from an upcoming Run the Jewels single (Scott Lynch)

36″ Chain will be available “throughout NYC,” says a brewery spokesperson, for an unspecified, but limited, time. A portion of the proceeds of all 36″ Chain sales will be donated to the Red Hook Art Project.

Scott Lynch