Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Live from the Swarm Beer launch at Exile Brewing

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

Trent Condon is joined by RJ Tursi, owner of Exile Brewing on the day of the launch of the new beer, Swarm Golden ALE.They take a look at the new beer, talk about the taste, where the money goes back to the student athletes and much more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from Exile Brewing and the Swarm Beer Launch, it is Trent Coddett here, Locked On Podcast. We got a lot going on here today as we break things down, a new venture in the world, and we got the owner of Exile joining us here, RJ, coming up today on Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. And make sure you hit that subscribe button while you're there. Joined here today by RJ Tercey, the owner of Exile. And RJ, it's been a while. We've done a few things in the past. Remember the 25th anniversary with the 25 cent ruthies yes all that we had well what five years back now is that what it is maybe a little bit longer uh god it was it was pre-pandemic it was yes and that was with the medicine their 25th season now here we are talking about the iowa hawkeyes and the swarm beer so yes

i gotta be honest so from the forefront i am one of the guys that I'm sure you hear about. I only drink a light beer. Sure. When I go to a lot of places, I get a little nervous. Go to a brewery. Oh, boy, here we go. They're going to try to put an IPA down my throat. It's going to be gross to me.

I'm not going to like it. I drink sours and honestly, your sour is my favorite. It's always in my fridge every single, every single summer that is in there. And I know what I'm doing on my way out today is grabbing a 12 pack of that, but I'm one of those people. Sure. When the idea came to you guys from the swarm collective and talk about the idea of what kind of beer from the forefront, because I'm drinking it and I'm sucking them down like they're water. They're absolutely delicious. I love them as a domestic beer drinker.

I think you guys hit it out of the park. Thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate that. Yeah, we knew. So we really cut our teeth as a brewery making lagers, making light beers, making easy drinking, very palatable, well-balanced beers, right? And so when this opportunity came along, we knew that that was the style of beer that

we needed to bring to the table for it. But even lighter, honestly, than like Ruthie or Tercey Pills or Zoltan or any of those beers. We knew that it just needed to have a little bit of, you know, a little bit of hop flavor to, to balance things out, keep it light, make it a beer that people can tailgate with all day long. And that's what we achieved. That's what we got. So I took my first sip on the air on my radio, on radio today on KXNO. Okay, great. And I was on with the afternoon show, and it was that same thing.

And my first thought was, I had season tickets since I was in high school. Yes. Done a lot of tailgating in my time. Yeah. Went to every Big Ten campus. I like to, and this is going to be in the cooler every single time because before a game, I like to be well lubricated. And I'm not going to have one.

I don't want to have. How do you support that? I'll have a good half dozen of these before I make my way into Kinnick Stadium I like to be well lubricated. And I'm not going to have one. I don't want to have. And who support that? I'll have a good half dozen of these before I make my way into Kinnick Stadium because, A, they're delicious. B, they're easy drinking. And I can do that and put a bratwurst in my belly too. That's right. And be good to go.

Again, I know there was a lot of people that had the same concern. You hear about, all right, they're going to make something that is not going to hit the general population. This did it. And the other part that I've heard from a lot of people that have the same concern you hear about all right they're going to make something that is not going to hit the general population this did it and the other part that i've heard from a lot of people that consider themselves beer connoisseurs they like it too yeah that's a difficult balance to hit kind of both communities if you will right you know and that's that has kind of always been one of the challenges that we that we've tried to take on, honestly, since our inception, is like, hey, what's a beer that the craft beer nerd, if you will, can get behind? And also a beer that's going to have mass appeal. Our beer, Ruthie, that's what we've always tried to do with that beer.

That's our most popular beer. That's what I always get. Yeah, so there you go. And we wanted to do the same thing with this beer, but we didn't want it to be the same beer as Ruthie. It's very different than Ruthie. And yeah, this is, this is one that it's not going to fill you up. You are going to be able to have several of them before you go to the game and

still behave yourself, you know, behave the way that you should be loud in the stadium, but not overbearing. Exactly. Exactly. And so, yeah, it's going to be the right beer for the occasion. Absolutely. For sure. So an interesting thing, again, being kind of very much a layman in terms of the beer community,

because I'm just a guy that finds whatever light beer is cheap, grab a couple of sours when I'm out and about, that's about it. Sure. And talking to one of the people in your guys' community with Nick yesterday. Yeah. And he mentioned how difficult it is to make this type of beer. Yeah, that's right. Which I was shocked by.

Again, not knowing beer, I figured a light beer, something that is easy drinking, would be the easiest thing. That's's not the case so explain that to the listeners yeah yeah so so when you make when you make a beer that is high in alcohol hopped up or like big big intense forward flavors roasty flavors whatever it is you know those flavors those big intense flavors can cover up flaws, right? They can cover up flaws and beer, you know, off flavors want to get into your beer. DMS, acetyl, the high diastole, there's all sorts of different off flavors that, that want to creep into your beer. And so to make a light beer that is, you know, absent of any of those off flavors and just like a beautiful expression of the ingredients that you use to make it, you know, absent of any of those off flavors and just like a beautiful expression

of the ingredients that you use to make it, you have to have great process. You have to be buttoned up on your process, buttoned up on your sanitation, buttoned up on your packaging. So it really is, you know, you can ask maybe not any brewer, but you can ask most brewers, you know, hey, what is the most challenging style of beer to make or what is the type of beer that that really showcases uh you know the abilities of that brewery and they'll tell you you know oh it's a pilsner or it's a light beer or something something in that in that wheelhouse there so yeah it's true it just not the way that my mind but then when you break it down that way yeah it makes a lot of sense because it is lighter.

And any imperfection, I'm going to be able to taste it. Yeah. Well, there's been a lot of light beers out there for many years that aren't good. And so people might make that association, right? They're like, oh, you know, no big deal to make light beers. But to make a great light beer it is challenging it's very challenging so how this came into being i know you have a lot of hawkeye grads that yeah work for you guys here at exile a lot of people inside your community that went to the

university of iowa for sure and talking to a number of them here today yep i could tell their excitement level oh we are so stoked it was so excited it feels like the perfect marriage so take us in how this kind of all came into being yeah yeah so so we we started hearing rumblings on hawkeye message boards uh brad loves his message board yeah yeah well it's effective it I mean, here we are. So we started hearing rumblings on message boards that the Swarm Collective wanted to make this happen, make a beer happen. And so the message got to me, and it was actually our director of operations who reached out. A friend of his told him, hey, they're looking to do this, ran it up the flagpole. Absolutely. Absolutely. We want to be a part of this. And so we got into

contact with them and, uh, basically just put together a package of like, you know, this is who we are. These are our capabilities. This is, uh, this is the style of beer that we want to make. This is our sales team these are some of our marketing assets and just showed them you know showed them what they would be getting yeah if they partnered with us and uh and and and here we are then the decision what kind of beer to make yes and coming to that how long did the process take i mean putting together what you're going to do and then ultimately getting those first tastes. Yeah.

How long does something like that take? So usually it takes a very long time. But it was a little serendipitous with this one because we had another beer on tap at the time that we were really enjoying and thought was a great beer. really enjoying and thought was a great beer and so when when these guys came down when the swarm folks came down to uh to to hear our our pitch if you will we sampled them out on that beer and said hey this is what we want it to be like but we want to tone it down okay we want to tone it down a little bit and says okay hey you know give it a shot see how you do. Joey Hansen, our head brewer, is a massive Hawkeye fan, massive Hawkeye fan. And so he put everything. I mean, we were giving him so – I mean, the pressure was on Joey for sure.

Made the pilot batch, you know, first taste. We were very happy with it. We believed in the beer. And so we brought the beer to the Swarm folks, very happy with it. We believed in the beer. And so we brought the beer to the Swarm folks, had them try it, and we were all on the same page. Hey, this is it. And then you combine that with the great marketing effort that our director of sales and marketing and our head of marketing put out. We just feel like we have a package ready to go that Hawkeye fans are really going to enjoy.

No doubt about it. It is available here right now at Exile. When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about RJ, where you can get it across the state and across the country eventually. We'll get into that a little bit more as we talk here from the kickoff event for the Swarm Beer at Exile Brewing here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Well, the NBA finals are here, and it's time to make a fast break to FanDuel.

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get ready for first pitch against North Carolina. In fact, I think we're just moments away from that one as the Hawkeyes will be doing battle against the Tar Heels and the NCAA tournament. And we're enjoying our swarm beer. So RJ Tersey, the owner here of XL Brewing, the question's already out there. I know

you guys are getting a ton. Stop into my favorite watering holes. You can have Swarm Beer on tap. Right. You're going to get it in cans. Right. Now here in Des Moines, it's pretty simple. I mean, anybody that wants it for the most part is going to be able to get it. Sure. But we have a ton of listeners and a ton of viewers on the east side. Let's go right there. Let's go to the apex. Let's go to Iowa City. The efforts over there, I was talking to one of your marketing people over on that side and one of your sales guys over there and said, it's kind of fish in a barrel right now.

Everybody wants to get it. So for people that are going to be looking, first of all, when do you anticipate your favorite bar is going to have it on tap here across the state? Right. So we are ahead of schedule right now, which we're excited about. We brewed our first. So what we're drinking right now, this is our pilot batch. Okay. So this was our, this was Joey's first attempt at the beer.

And like I said, you know, he, he did a great job with it. So we're really happy with how it turned out. We brewed our first big batch of it last week. This upcoming week, next week, we'll, we'll start kegging it off. Most of that is going to be going to eastern Iowa. So we are hoping that it will start becoming available at watering holes in eastern Iowa next Friday. Okay. Next Friday.

So we're a week away from... Yep. Wow. That's it we're a week away from this thing getting on draft at a lot of places in eastern iowa and then we'll just continue continue rolling it out on draft after that uh we are hoping for mid to late july for the 12 pack launch for the 12 ounce 12 pack launch um that 12-ounce, 12-pack launch. That'll be, yeah, that's going to be the big one that can go in all the grocery stores and all that stuff.

And then somewhere in between there, we'll start releasing 4-pack, 16-ounce cans. Oh, okay. That probably won't be as widely available as the 12-packs end up being, but it'll have its place. And who knows, maybe it actually will be as widely available because that'll be a smaller package that people can pick up. And a lot of people maybe want to try it for the first time. Yeah, absolutely.

If they don't want to dive in on the 12-pack, they can either get it on draft somewhere that carries it, or they can grab a four-pack of it at a grocery store. So we mentioned statewide, going to be available pretty quickly on draft, and we're, what, six weeks away maybe from seeing it, going to your local, going to the grocery store and being able to pick it up. How about convenience stores? How does that work?

This business is completely foreign to me. And then you'll see some breweries, some craft places that, oh, why is this in Casey's? But why is this not? Why is this in Hy-Vee? Why is this not? How does this, as simple as you can, how does this all work? Well, there's a lot of things that go into that.

Sure. Right. You know, your reach, your price point, your distribution, the velocity of the beer, meaning like how often are people buying it? of the beer, meaning like how often are people buying it? So, you know, those things, those generally have, you have two different opportunities throughout the year to sell into those, those chains, call them resets. And so, you know, we may have missed the spring reset, but we're certainly hoping to get in there for the fall reset. And who knows with a, with a special product like this, we might be able to get in there, you know, in between that.

We'll see. We'll see. Nothing for sure. Yeah, I can't make any promises about that. Would you anticipate, though, like a Hy-Vee, that when we get to that middle of July time, that'll be one of the first places that... Those guys are on it.

Okay. Yeah, those guys are on it. So that'll be a pretty easy one that yeah they have independent store directors independent uh you know wine and spirits directors that as soon as i know the guy up there bringing it in jim the liquor king right yeah there you go self-proclaimed liquor okay that's it i love that he comes out he comes out and works for any other radio shows on kx and o and liquor king yes and yeah so those kind of places make sense how about the displays that was something i was talking to one of your sales people about that i'm simple i see a display catches your eye display sell beer this anywhere in the state

there's hawkeye fans everywhere absolutely absolutely a how does that work and do you have to pay extra for a display is it you have to wink at the manager the right way how does that work for those that's illegal okay okay this is all news to me yeah no you don't you don't do that i mean honestly it's they they will those managers will make their decisions based on what they think they can sell. Right. So, uh, I think we're, I think Hawkeye fans are going to be buying the hell out of this beer because they, they know what it means. And so, uh, I would anticipate big displays all across the state and, you know, in maybe at some point the iowa state folks will will have theirs ready to go so i i envision hawkeyes iowa state especially during you know the early part

of the season when they're playing those displays but oh yeah big displays like that in central iowa i think it's cool it's a it's a whole new landscape for beer are you breaking some news here are you guys working with the we are not okay we are not all right no we you know is the the business person in me is like hey yeah we want we want both of those things but the hawkeye fan in me says that that would be wrong all right and so uh we're we're not going to be doing it, but there is, you know, some brewery is going to get lucky, and they're going to do a great job with Iowa State for sure. It makes a lot of sense.

So the financial aspect, I believe I saw a quote from you maybe last week that said if this sells at the level of Ruthie, we're not talking, this isn't going to be a few thousand dollars. No. This is monster money coming into the collective if we hit those kind of levels, which that financial part, I mean, you guys are leaving money on the table, but it's coming back to the athletes. It's coming back to the guys that we're cheering for and the ladies that we're cheering for

and watching that. The NIL part of it, it's a collective and it's going back to the student athlete. Just how you came up and thought the idea. Yeah, let's we could maybe take a little more profit if we wanted. But that's not the way we're going to do it here at Exxon. Right. Well, it was it was a negotiation. Yeah, obviously it was a negotiation. And, you know, we ended up agreeing to the 20 percent. And, you know, we ended up agreeing to the 20%. So what it is, is it's 20% of the revenue that we get from this beer is going to go back to the Swarm Collective. And, you know, it's challenging. We're going to have to be efficient, you know, with our operations because it's tough to absorb something like that. But we just thought it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

And we're honestly stoked that the money is going to the athletes. I mean, the athletes lay it out there. They put it all on the line during their games. So it's crazy that it took this long for those athletes to be able to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. And honestly, it is a dream come true that we are able to be involved with that with beer and with the Hawkeyes. It is awesome. It absolutely is. Final thing for you, RJ, and it's the can.

Okay. So when that image first came out, my jaw hit the floor. I mean, that thing is an absolute beauty. Yeah, it's striking. Who was it? It was internal. it was internal it was internal we so we obviously we got the logo from from swarm yep but then it was it was nick our head of sales and marketing that was like hey this is what it should look like and then and then aaron our head

of marketing put it all together and you know we tweaked it hey change this change this change this and i mean they crushed it. It was all internal. We had to get it done fast. Yeah, you did. We had to get it done fast. Another thing that was just. We presented that image to them.

Yeah. We presented that image to them as part of our pitch. Give it the thumbs up and away you go. So, yeah. That thing is awesome. Yeah, thank you. Absolutely awesome. Thank you.

This whole thing is. Appreciate your time, RJ. And, of course, you do have Swarm Beer here on tap. Yep. Coming soon to Eastern Iowa, and it'll be around Central Iowa. All across the state. Getting there all the way across, and that's going to be great. Yep.

Cans, mid-July, kind of looking at that. Maybe late July. Yeah, mid-late July. Yep. Is where we're looking at for getting the cans, and away we go. Well, appreciate it. Yep. Thank you.

A little more about Exile before you get out of here. Okay. You do have more than just warm beer. Of course. I told you, Nick Sauer is my favorite. Yeah. Ruthie is well-renowned, not just here in Central Iowa, but across the state, across the nation.

People know about that. Yep. But the thing I always tell when people come to town, go to Exile, get a beer, but you guys get great food. Thank you. Yeah. So I grew up in the restaurant business. My dad, he ran Tercey's Latin King.

People probably know the name, right? Yeah, yeah. Tercey's Latin. So we're a restaurant family. Tercey's Latin King was shepherded by him for 40 years. We opened up down here 11 years ago. It's been that long, man. It's been 11 years. I think we're getting old, RJ. Oh, my God. Look at the gray hair on my beard. Yeah. It's been that long, man. It's been 11 years.

I think we're getting old, RJ. Oh, my God. Look at the gray hair on my beard. That's why I wear the hat. Yep. So, yeah, we're a restaurant family, independent, family-owned and operated. And, yeah, we just appreciate all the support we get from our fans across the state. It's great.

Great place to stop out and a beautiful patio right here for the summer months. And, of course, all throughout the year inside here as we're hanging out thanks for your time today rj thank you appreciate you having me on rj tercy joining us here on the lockdown hawkeyes podcast thanks as always for making lockdown hawkeyes your first listen every day as we come to you from the swarm kickoff event swarm b beer now available and as we heard coming soon across the state. That'll do it for today. We'll jump back with you tomorrow. We'll get a recap of Iowa-North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. We've got to get ready to watch this thing.

We'll do that coming up here. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.