Hawkeye athletes (and supporters) hope their fans swarm to new, Iowa-made brew

If you once thought free agency in college sports was a preposterous scenario, how plausible would you have found this:

One-fifth of the revenue a brewery makes from a specific beer will go to paying a state university’s athletes.

What, did you once think Las Vegas being the home of a National Hockey League champion was an impossibility, too?

Well, the Iowa Athletic Club in Coralville will host a Swarm beer happy hour Friday at 4 p.m. It’s an introduction of Exile Brewing’s Swarm Golden Ale, though the beverage has already started making the rounds in eastern and central Iowa.

It’s on tap at Fieldhouse 1st Ave in Cedar Rapids and Brothers in Iowa City, and soon will be poured in other establishments where you can get a beer.

Twenty percent of all revenue Des Moines-based Exile makes from that beer will go to the Swarm Collective, the nonprofit supporting University of Iowa football and basketball athletes.

How this came to be is about as simple as it could get. An Exile employee saw a post on a Hawkeye fans’ website suggesting Swarm should get its own beer deal. Collectives at Boise State and Cincinnati have them.

Someone at Exile saw the post, the brewery got together with Swarm, and a beer was born.

“We knew they wanted a fairly low-alcohol beer, something you could drink at a tailgate for several hours and still be good to go going into the stadium,” said Exile owner and founder R.J. Tursi.

So the beer is 4.2 percent alcohol, less than Exile’s many other beers and the same as Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite.

Brad Heinrichs, the CEO of Swarm, said via text that he had these conditions for a brewery to meet:

“Brewery must have expansive distribution so that many Hawkeye fans can access the beer. Brewery must provide 20 percent of sales donation to the Swarm. Brewery must make a great beer that appeals to the masses. Brewery needed to be based in Iowa and owners must be Hawkeye fans.”

Tursi actually is a Notre Dame graduate, but you can’t have everything. Plus, he’ll become a huge Hawkeye fan if the beer goes over big.

Tursi and his father, Des Moines restaurateur Bob Tursi, opened Exile 11 years ago. Before that, R.J. Tursi worked at a winery in Italy and became a certified sommelier.

“We wanted to build a beer culture here in Des Moines,” Tursi said, “and we wanted to build a culture in general.”

That has included hosting an annual music fest, road races, and drag brunches.

And now, a beer called Swarm. It’s a big step for an independent brewer.

“It will sell in 16-ounce cans, hopefully by the Fourth of July at many retailers,” Tursi said. “By the end of July or early August we hope to have 12-packs of 12-ounce cans getting released into stores.

“We think this is going to be big. It’s going to be part of the future of local beer in the state of Iowa. Our initial preorders are really big.”

Asked if Exile would consider producing a beer for an Iowa State NIL collective, Tursi’s answer was no.

“We need to be focused on this and make sure it’s executed properly,” Tursi said. “If we were to take on another huge brand, for us to try to pull off both would probably not do either justice.

“We’re confident another Iowa brewery can do a great job for Iowa State,” he said. “We don’t have anything against the Cyclones.”

Nothing has been announced regarding Swarm Golden Ale getting sold at Kinnick Stadium this fall, but the idea obviously sounds good to its brewer.

“If they’re Hawkeye fans and want to help support the players, this is a low barrier of doing that,” Tursi said. “Drinking beer is something they’ll be doing anyway, so they might as well support their athletes.”

Ed Podolak has promoted a medical cannabis company during Iowa football radio broadcasts, and the university’s main NIL collective is sponsored by a casino and is partners with a brewery.

So it stands to figure that the Stanley Cup will be featured in a championship parade on the Las Vegas Strip Saturday night. The possibilities in this life truly are endless.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com