Beer Expert Ale Sharpton Talks to Nappy Roots About the State of Black Brewing & the Power of Collaboration

My overall involvement in the brewing industry — 25 years as a journalist, photographer, influencer and entrepreneur — has been, for the most part, thoroughly enjoyed and an ongoing learning experience. 

One of my most recent and proudest accomplishments is the Piano Keys Chocolate Vanilla Imperial Stout, made in collaboration with New Belgium Brewing, one of the world’s most iconic breweries. Holding a can of beer, whose design I conceptualized and which contains a banging brew I helped create, is an amazing feeling. 

Grammy-nominated hip-hop icons Nappy Roots have shared the same accomplishment. They’re now 10 collaborations deep with various craft breweries throughout the nation. 

Group members William “Skinny DeVille” Hughes and Melvin “Fish Scales” Adams Jr. have seen the positive outcomes from their various joint beer ventures, and say the hard work is beginning to pay off in a big effin’ way. 

After putting a fire to one of God’s greatest creations, Nappy Roots member Skinny Deville takes a pull from his joint and breaks down how the group’s first brewing collaboration happened, right in the Kentucky natives’ adopted backyard of Atlanta.  

“We started in college drinking beer,” Skinny says, “and then when we were working on our 40 Akerz Project, I was drinking Red Stripes, like heavy-heavy.”. 

“Scales was living in The Pencil Factory Lofts and there was a little corner store down below. He’d go grab growlers of craft beer you could pick out.

“This was around 2016, when we became aware that there was actually a different level of beer that’s not Michelob, Heinekens or Coronas. Smaller companies were making great beer. One of them was Monday Night.”

After catching the craft beer bug, Nappy Roots developed a genuine interest in the process of brewing. Things got to the point where actually making a beer was the next step, and Atlanta-based Monday Night Brewing was down to make it happen, in the form of a pale ale they named Front Porch. 

“It only made sense,” Scales says. “We would always go to breweries when we were on the road, just to pick up a few more fans to come to the shows. Breweries always serve as a good place to meet people, and a lot of people that were there ended up at our shows. Why not?” 

Nappy wasn’t simply slapping their name on a can. They were actually brewing Front Porch — shoveling spent grains, adding hops, setting temperatures alongside Monday Night’s staff, and visiting the brewery religiously to check on the batch. 

From there, collaborations became their thing.They’ve since worked with various breweries throughout the country including Kentucky’s Against The Grain, Woodland Empire in Idaho, and burgeoning Georgia brewery Cherry Street, leading to 10 different beers ranging in various styles. 

It continues to be a winning combination in numerous ways, including marketing, cross branding and simply learning on the brewery’s dime. 

“I think the best thing is the [public relations], the marketing and the ability to make a beer without having to have all that equipment out the gate to make the beer,” Skinny says. 

“For example, I’m not going to spend 1.5 million dollars to start building a brewery and [then] learn how to make a beer. It is going to take me three years to fail and try not to lose all my money. Instead, I can just work with someone who already figured that part out.” 

Skinny continues, “The second part is, if you’re an artist, you have a fan base and if they like beer, that’s just one more thing they can gravitate to. So now they’ve bought your  merch, they bought your music, they attended your shows, they follow you on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, and they comment on everything… What else can they put their hands on?”

Scales also talked about how the glistening brewing equipment they saw inside breweries (whenever they stopped by one while on tour) always enamored them. 

Now, after all the hard work and hustle over the last three years, Nappy Roots have a customized Craftmaster Stainless brewhouse in the back of their recently opened 6,022-square-foot Atlantucky brewery, located blocks away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Evidently, the collaborations paid off. 

During a recent invite-only bottle share I hosted with Scales and Skinny, they proudly gave a tour of their stunning venue to some attendees, including musicians, journalists, influencers and beer industry professionals. 

Once a group of visitors made it to the back, where Nappy’s self-contained brewing magic will occur  beginning early 2021, an aspiring Black brewer dropped his jaws while admiring the Craftmaster setup, and admitted he was eager to graduate from the home-brewing equipment in his garage.

Scales simply looked at him and said, “I got you. We should collaborate.”