West O, Blum, and banning exile brewery from your thoughts

[Cyinthenorth]

The Hawk fans feigned outrage over the "boycott" was so predictable. To me, none of this is difficult. There are hundreds of options to buy your beer from. Exile made a calculated choice to support U of I, and that's fine. I'm sure they will see increased patronage from it. But when exercising my free will to buy a certain type of beer, I'm not buying one from someone who supports U of I's sports teams. It's really not complicated.

I second this. There are so many options to choose from, and Exile was kind of off my list of frequent beer purchases for the past several years now, as others have caught and surpassed them in quality, and Exile is really freakin' expensive compared to some of the competition. The decision to back U of I athletics is just the nail in the coffin I needed to tell myself I am never buying another Ruthie or Hannah again.

I don't think they are completely off their rocker for doing this with Swarm, though. Iowa fans outnumber ISU fans by probably 3 to 1 or worse in this state, so their business probably won't even feel the impact of ISU fans boycotting. Unfortunately.

 

[cyfan92]

For those of us west side DSM residents. Where is a place I can get West O beer that isn't affiliated with Hy-Vee?

All I see at our local Fareway is CoCo Stout, which is tasty, but not a summer beer.

West O Beer | Your Beer

westobeer.com

The SOAK’D™ Pale Ale with Grapefruit and Shandy would be great, so where can I get them??

 

[BCClone]

Kum and Go was sold to someone else in the last couple of months. That family doesn't own them any longer.

So now I have to say I don’t go there because they suck instead of them supporting the Hawkeyes. They are always the dirtiest and most run down of any stores I would go into. Worse than the old Casey’s even. Prontos even looked like palaces compared to K&Gs.

 

[BCClone]

I second this. There are so many options to choose from, and Exile was kind of off my list of frequent beer purchases for the past several years now, as others have caught and surpassed them in quality, and Exile is really freakin' expensive compared to some of the competition. The decision to back U of I athletics is just the nail in the coffin I needed to tell myself I am never buying another Ruthie or Hannah again.

I don't think they are completely off their rocker for doing this with Swarm, though. Iowa fans outnumber ISU fans by probably 3 to 1 or worse in this state, so their business probably won't even feel the impact of ISU fans boycotting. Unfortunately.

3:1 in your part maybe. Definitely not in all of the state.

 

[MyNameEhJeff]

Just curious, why a DSM brewery? West O distributes all over and is Iowa based.

Because DSM is the largest populated city in Iowa, hosts most of the major events that happen in Iowa and is only 40 mins from Ames. Boji is a destination city. But I believe you don’t even have to buy directly from West O, I think it’s just $2 from each case sold, regardless if it’s purchased straight from the brewery

 

[Cyinthenorth]

So now I have to say I don’t go there because they suck instead of them supporting the Hawkeyes. They are always the dirtiest and most run down of any stores I would go into. Worse than the old Casey’s even. Prontos even looked like palaces compared to K&Gs.

I moved out of the Mason City area about 12 years ago and haven't seen a Kum N Go since. Waterloo used to have one at a busy intersection off of San Marnan Dr. but that's been gone for awhile. Visited Mason City this past February and noticed all previous locations of Kum N Go are now called Yes Way. Company must be going under. I never cared for them as service stations either. Very poor in comparison to Casey's and Kwik Star.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

3:1 in your part maybe. Definitely not in all of the state.

I would guess it to be the state wide average. It is probably worse in my kneck of the woods, as there are what seems to be even more Badger fans in Dubuque than ISU fans.

 

[yowza]

So now I have to say I don’t go there because they suck instead of them supporting the Hawkeyes. They are always the dirtiest and most run down of any stores I would go into. Worse than the old Casey’s even. Prontos even looked like palaces compared to K&Gs.

Yeah some of them are. Kwik Star is kind of the same way. Casey's always seem to be the cleanest stores.

 

[yowza]

I moved out of the Mason City area about 12 years ago and haven't seen a Kum N Go since. Waterloo used to have one at a busy intersection off of San Marnan Dr. but that's been gone for awhile. Visited Mason City this past February and noticed all previous locations of Kum N Go are now called Yes Way. Company must be going under. I never cared for them as service stations either. Very poor in comparison to Casey's and Kwik Star.

Kum and Go was sold in last couple of months, so maybe they will change up the look and name.

 

[ScottyP]

Yeah some of them are. Kwik Star is kind of the same way. Casey's always seem to be the cleanest stores.

Are you serious Clark?

 

[yowza]

So now I have to say I don’t go there because they suck instead of them supporting the Hawkeyes. They are always the dirtiest and most run down of any stores I would go into. Worse than the old Casey’s even. Prontos even looked like palaces compared to K&Gs.

I will say one of the local K&G's has a robot type floor cleaner they let loose to keep the floor clean at least. Maybe they only do it late day, so no one gets run over, but it was the only covenience store type places I have seen one of those operating.

 

[CycloneFan97]

I've lost track of the rumored brewery tenants for CyTown. Any chance West O wants another location?

Would love this, game days would be even more fun with a brewery in the middle of Trice and Hilton

 

[Trice]

Kum and Go was sold in last couple of months, so maybe they will change up the look and name.

The sale of K&G was announced only two months ago and at the time said the deal would close "in the coming months." I would guess there would be another announcement when it's official.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

So...what's the 'boycott' about? What side was chosen? I've not heard of either spot so don't really care, just curious during the offseason. OP was missing details.

Exile is a more popular trendy place with some higher name value beers like Ruthie (legal dispute over name rights currently). I think it rubbed people wrong when they made it clear they were hawks and with it being in Des Moines which is closer to Ames, it rubbed a raw spot.

 

[MJ29]

For those of us west side DSM residents. Where is a place I can get West O beer that isn't affiliated with Hy-Vee?

All I see at our local Fareway is CoCo Stout, which is tasty, but not a summer beer.

West O Beer | Your Beer

westobeer.com

The SOAK’D™ Pale Ale with Grapefruit and Shandy would be great, so where can I get them??

Grimes Spirits & Liquor has had West O in the past. I haven't been there in a bit. Worth checking.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Because DSM is the largest populated city in Iowa, hosts most of the major events that happen in Iowa and is only 40 mins from Ames. Boji is a destination city. But I believe you don’t even have to buy directly from West O, I think it’s just $2 from each case sold, regardless if it’s purchased straight from the brewery

We're gonna drink that place dry from 50 counties away.

 

[werdnamanhill]

3:1 in your part maybe. Definitely not in all of the state.

I bet it's 3:1 even in Des Moines.

In my experience 3:1 would be very optimistic for a statewide average. Id guess maybe 5:1

 

[BCClone]

I read about the lawsuit, what legs does exile have to stand on?

 

[Al_4_State]

Glad we are getting a We Will beer, but a bit bummed it is West O. I have never seen any of their product out here on the east coast of the state.

Yeah, Blum said it was state wide, but you never see it in the Driftless area.

Of course it seems like we’re not even in Iowa 90% of the time anyhow.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I moved out of the Mason City area about 12 years ago and haven't seen a Kum N Go since. Waterloo used to have one at a busy intersection off of San Marnan Dr. but that's been gone for awhile. Visited Mason City this past February and noticed all previous locations of Kum N Go are now called Yes Way. Company must be going under. I never cared for them as service stations either. Very poor in comparison to Casey's and Kwik Star.

Those YesWays are the most disgusting stores I've ever been in. Just dirty and miserable.