Khris Johnson paused his medical studies to make history in pursuit of another dream.

Food & Wine reports that homebrewing became a hobby for Johnson while he was in college. He had been on a premed track and simultaneously secured a role at Cigar City Brewing Co. in Tampa, FL, working under Wayne Wambles, who was a brewmaster.

Wambles had seen something special in Johnson and shared positive sentiments about him, stating he “had a great deal of love for creating harmonious, complex beers,” according to the outlet.

Green Bench Brewing Co.

Johnson’s passion for homebrewing prompted him to take a break from his medical career aspirations and focus on the venture full-time. He moved to St. Petersburg, FL and, in 2013, opened his first microbrewery, Green Bench Brewing Co., alongside Nathan Stonecipher, Steven Duffy, and Brian Wing, according to the company website.

Green Bench Brewing Co. offers beers, mead, and cider made with fresh, local ingredients. Customers can choose from beverages including Postcard Pils (American Pilsner), Bench Life (American Light Lager), Skyway (Hazy Double IPA), and more, per the website.

“I spend a lot of time obsessing over how to best express ourselves and myself, how to provide the best experience you can get with beer, specifically in our community and our city,” Johnson told Food & Wine. “It’s not just about one experience with one beer. It’s the experience with all of our beers.”

The company name also carries historical significance concerning segregation. It references the green benches that once lined St. Petersburg streets, installed in the early 1900s, according to NBC News. However, Black people were not permitted to use those benches at the time.

“What it meant was community. However, in the African American community, it was an unwritten rule that you could not sit on these green benches,” Johnson told NBC News.

“Growing up biracial in Memphis, TN, meant listening to the Black men in my life and women talk about what they had been through to get to where we are today,” he added, per the outlet. “That Dr. [Martin Luther] King was assassinated in our city, that the Lorraine Motel looks exactly like it did the day that he died. And the purpose of that is so that we can remember what we’ve been through to get to where we are currently.”

Green Bench Brewing Co. also makes history as Florida’s first Black-owned brewery, NBC News reported.