Getting Rancid

This week, the pride of Bodo Park announced it is collaborating with Bay Area punk rock legends Rancid on its newest offering, “Brewstom-per Golden Ale.” The beer, which will be available on tap and in cans, will feature the cover art from the band’s seminal 1994 album “Let’s Go.” It’s billed as a “crushable crowd-pleaser” at 5 percent ABV, with both the beer and label evoking a “sense of punk rock nostalgia, bringing you back to the days of sweaty, indie garage shows and oodles of easy-drinking beers,” Ska’s head mosher Dave Thibodeau said.

“Brewstomper is a crisp, refreshing ale designed to be enjoyed with music and friends, the type of beer that doesn’t dominate the conversation, but simply enhances it,” Ska extolled in a press release.

“While the hops and malt work quietly backstage without bravado, the show certainly couldn’t go on without them.”

Of course, Ska’s band crush for Rancid and its precursor, Operation Ivy, is no secret – Hop Ivy and Rue B. Soho are stalwarts in the brewery’s line up. “Rancid and Op Ivy both provided the soundtrack to our lives as we were planning out the brewery in the early ’90s,” Thibodeau said. “Their music, along with a heavy dose of an unnamed American light lager, really are the roots of what has become Ska’s World Headquarters.”

Despite the long-running love affair, the idea for the latest beer didn’t come about until Ska’s sales characters, Kristen Muraro and Arlo Grammatica, “found” their way backstage at a Rancid show and discussions of collaboration began. Many beers and a couple shows later, Brewstomper is set to go on the production line in April and debut May 11 at The Bash Music & Craft Beer Festival in Phoenix. The multi-city punk-apalooza features Rancid, Pennywise, Suicidal Ten- dencies, L7 and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, among others. (Since we’re sure you’re wondering, here’s the website: www.thebashmusicfesti val.com.)

“This is a beer concept we should have brewed up a long time ago, and we have Rancid to thank for making it happen.”

For its part, Rancid is happy – well, as happy as punk rockers can be – at the end result. “Working with Ska was really a no-brainer,” Rancid founder (formerly of Op Ivy fame) Matt Freeman said. “They make great beer and they’ve got that Do-Shit-Yourselves ethos that’s woven into all of our DNA.”

Now only if Ska could get Rancid to play a show in Durango. Just throwing it out there ... .