For many men in their 20s, drinking two six-packs of beer is just a Friday night romp. For Rusty Featherstone, it’s a job. In her long-running “Rusty Ranks” series of one-minute TikTok posts to her 411,000 followers, Featherstone checks into the camera while sipping on beer (every can of beer from Miller Lite to Beatbox Party Punch). His eyes become even more hollow. The words become even more slurred. But he always follows through on his job, making sure to end each video with his brand on his 1 out of 10 scale, no matter how far he is.
“It’s a matter of pride,” he says. GQ.
You can now find Featherstone in a variety of places online. Get the latest beer reviews and his podcasts on TikTok and his Instagram. Will and Rusty’s playdate, which he shares with fellow creator Will Donnellon. Featherstone is part of the Almost Friday media network, which includes notable online creators such as Donnellon, Will Angus, Chester Collins, Liam Cullagh, and Billy Langdon. Their work spans video sketch comedy, podcasts, and other social media content. Most recently, the team developed their own beer, “Friday Beer.” (Featherstone rated this a 9.4.)
In three years, Featherstone has gone from a hungover college kid ranking beer to a hungover adult who gets invited to bars and stadiums because he’s become semi-famous for ranking beer. Of course, he’s now launching his Rusty Ranks brand and hopes to expand his digital reach. He is currently working with the Almost Friday team on Parts unknownA style travel program that checks out wonderful places around the world.
In this interview, Featherstone talks about his beer review process, what fame has done to his nightlife, and how this all started with a bang.
GQ: When did you first start creating online?
Rusty Featherstone: So, oddly enough, it actually started as a challenge from one of my friends.talking about how easy it is [getting a following] seems to be a hot topic on the internet, and some people say it may have been more difficult than they expected. And I thought, “I could do that in about two seconds.” Things didn’t go as quickly as I had hoped, but after a few months I had a job. This is very wonderful.
What kind of videos did you post at first?
I think my first videos were just shooting silly things to make each other laugh. My goal was that if I could make my friends laugh, I would know that there are people like them out there. And somehow I ended up with a beer review.
I’d love to hear how it all started.
I think it was exactly like that at the time. We are already drinking.Maybe it could be made into a movie. And I think after a while this started to take a toll on my body and overall health. So we started thinking about other things we could consider that wouldn’t require him to drink 12 beers.
What qualities do you look for in a beer when ranking them?
I think there are various factors. What I and several others find most interesting about this is that some of these brands don’t receive fair reviews. That’s because it’s based on my personal experience. I remember getting points deducted because I cut my mouth on one of them. It’s a fairly loose evaluation system. We try to be as silly as possible when we’re doing it, but people take it more seriously than I do.
When you decided to review beer, was it because you were already planning a party and thought, “Maybe I should video this?” Or, “I don’t want to do it alone, I want everyone to come.” Do you have nights when you feel like that?
I think there were a lot of things that fit both of those categories. It’s usually a Friday night, and after I’m done I end up going out and watching soccer or something. But there were nights, especially if there was a deadline where I had to submit something, where I would say, “Guys, come on over. We’ll figure this out, and I’ll pay for the beer.”
Have you ever done it? do not have Were you able to clear all 12 times?
I think this is the only time we got close. [to quitting] When there was Four Loko a while ago [night]. It seemed impossible. No one knew how much was consumed. [we were] I went too far.
If this happens, I feel like even if I start with the intention of taking pictures, I end up giving up halfway through. How do you hold yourself accountable?
It’s a point of pride. Usually I have friends around me to keep me on track. There was one thing I remember saying to them. [the party] Please leave the house, because once you leave, you will be distracted. ‘And in the middle of the video, we were on someone’s boat. They didn’t do a good job as babysitters.
You moved on to ranking other things. He habitually drinks 12 beers at a time, which is probably not sustainable either physically or mentally. How do you keep your beer rankings at regular intervals so you don’t destroy yourself?
We now have an amazing team of people that we didn’t have access to initially. We are given great opportunities to go to events and big games, but they are much easier because we can plan ahead and have a rough idea of what we have to do. I’ll save beer reviews for something really important for now. We made our own beers and I came back from retirement to do one of those beers and it was fun. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s very rare to find a beer that’s worth photographing.
I was going to ask about Almost Friday Beer. Were you involved in making it or do you just drink it?
Yes, I was also part of the process. We ended up working with a brewery in upstate New York, and we ended up going into something like a science lab. They had beakers and such, and they let us sample different alcoholic beverages, and I helped out a little creatively. I had no idea how long a process it would be. I think it took about three years from coming up with the idea to actually commercializing it.
Did you study anything related to this at school?
I think [Friday Beers] This is the closest I’ve come to utilizing my business degree. I took a few marketing classes, and while I can’t say I really flexed my business muscles that much, they were fun to take.
You mentioned that you get invited to sports games and things like that. Have you started to get recognized?
Yeah, that’s really weird. There are many universities in a particular city. Boston is really heavy. For example, I was walking down the road with my girlfriend’s mother, but she never went out with her. And you can tell from 50 yards what type of guy does it. I think, “That person is very likely to say something.” And we high-fived a few times on the way to dinner, and her mom was very, very confused.
Sean Evans hot onessays that people always buy him chicken when he goes out, but he is tired of eating chicken. Does this happen when you drink beer?
every night. My friend Sam jokes that going out costs more money. [fans will] Even if I offer to buy it, I end up buying it because I don’t feel good. But when people are trying to force shots on you after a few hours at a bar, saying no takes more effort than it used to.
You said you could always find a guy approaching you. How would you describe your audience?
Like a stretched and squashed version of myself. They are me, but in different forms. They’re the ones you can immediately guess are going to say something. And surprisingly, there are far more fathers than I expected. When I get home, like when we go golfing, all of my dad’s friends are incredibly good at reading what I’ve been up to.
of GQ The editor who first sent your work to me is your father. Are they living vicariously through you? I feel like my dad deserves 12 beers more than anyone else.
Yes, I agree. I feel the same atmosphere. I think they want to see a little bit of what they were doing in college in their early 20s and empathize with it.
What is your favorite beer to drink 24/7?
I have a real answer and I have a right answer. The correct answer is “I really like myself.” And my biggest worry when I was working on this was that I was going to have to promote a shitty product for the rest of my life. So I’m really glad it actually tastes good and that it’s free. It definitely helps. If I had to say something that’s not ours, I really like Red Stripe. It’s a Jamaican beer that comes in a stubby bottle. That’s really good. I remember being introduced to these works when we were on vacation in Jamaica and being blown away.
If there was an expansion to Rusty Ranks, what else would you like to see ranked?
This is kind of an offshoot, but we’re developing shows like this: How cool is that?. And I’m going to go see how amazing different parts of the world are. It will feel like a travel program.I always liked it Parts unknown With Anthony Bourdain, I wanted to do something along those lines. I know you have to pack a huge amount of items, but that’s the general idea. First, go and explore this Dutch town, then go to Pioneer Town. It’s like an old western town.
Will all this be posted on social media? Or do you have any aspirations to move into television?
We’re always talking to networks and things like that. I don’t think I’ve told anyone about this show. I really like YouTube. Because you can do whatever you want. Therefore, it was originally planned to be released on YouTube. And I think I’m more of a hand-to-mouth person. I don’t really know what’s going to happen in five years, but it’s definitely going to be great to shoot and put on shows.
