Joel Aschbrenner

Des Moines Register

Toppling Goliath is headedcoming to Chicago thanks to one of the city’s oldest and largest residents.

The Decorah-based and internationally-respected brewery has formed a partnership with The Field Museum, Chicago’s lakefront natural history museum. As part of the deal, Toppling Goliath will collaborate with the museum to brew a specialty beer and will sell beer at the museum starting in late January, the first time its beer will be available anywhere in Illinois.

What sparked the partnership was the use of a similar name, something that — among less agreeable parties — could have resulted in a trademark battle.

The museum is home to Sue, the T. Rex, a 40-foot-long, 67 million-year-old dinosaur fossil.

One of Toppling Goliath’s most popular beers is PseudoSue, an American pale ale with a label featuring a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“Initially the Field Museum was very hard line about” wanting to protect their trademark of the name Sue used with the image of a T. Rex, said Martha Engel, an intellectual property attorney who represents Toppling Goliath.

But, ultimately, the brewery owners and the marketing executives at the museum got together and decided to create a cross-promotion scheme rather than launch a legal fight.

“It became obvious that we could work well together,” Clark Lewey, a co-owner of the brewery, said.

Lewey said he is a big supporter of The Field Museum. He loved taking his kids to the museum when they were young. “It’s a real gem of the Midwest,” he said.

As part of the deal, Toppling Goliath will print new labels for PseudoSue and another beer called King Sue that promote the Field Museum and Sue, the T. Rex.

The Field Museum will sell Toppling Goliath beers on tap and in its shop starting Jan. 25. It will also host a kick-off party that day.

The brewery, which produces some of the nation’s most sought-after craft beers, plans to begin distributing to other Chicago-area retailers after breaking into the market at the museum. The move comes as Toppling Goliath is working on an expansion that will more than triple its brewing capacity.

80,000 people tried to buy this Iowa beer

Lewey has not yet concocted the specialty beer for the museum. He plans to brainstorm with museum officials in January and hopes to create a beer with some tie to natural history or the museum itself.

The Field Museum has collaborated with other breweries in the past. One beer was made from a 1,000 year old South American recipe.

Trademark disputes involving craft breweries have gained more attention recently as the industry boomed and brewers rushed to lay claim to unique and catchy beer names. In Iowa, Peace Tree Brewing, which makes a beer called No Coast IPA, threatened legal action when a new brewery called NoCoast Beer Co. opened 40 miles down the road.

“I think, in 2017, you’re going to see even more of these disputes happen, especially as more national distribution networks open to breweries that had been regionally focused,” said Engel, the attorney who works for the Winthrop & Weinstine law firm in Minneapolis.

“The message from this collaboration, in my opinion, is that businesses can come together to forge a partnership that is mutually beneficial to both,” she added.

YMCA pools are actually under construction

A back-hoe has appeared inside the unfinished aquatic center at downtown's Wellmark YMCA, a sign that construction to finish the long-stalled pools is finally beginning in earnest.

Terry Feldt, the executive director of the Wellmark Y, hopes to complete construction of the aquatic center in March 2018, according to a spokesperson for the Y. (Correction: This story initially included the wrong projected completion date for the pools. They are expected to open in March 2018.)

The YMCA of Greater Des Moines announced in September that it had finally raised enough money to start construction on the aquatic center, but the digging to build the pools appeared only recently.

The aquatic center will feature an Olympic-sized 50-meter pool, a 25-yard pool and stadium seating. Construction stalled after the YMCA struck out on several grant applications, a misstep that led to the ouster of the Y's previous CEO.

Birthdays

Jan. 1: Martin Sprock, attorney at the Patterson Law Firm, 65.

Jan. 2: Dean Oestreich, retired chairman Pioneer Hi-Bred International, 65; Richard Lozier, attorney at the Belin McCormick law firm, 73; Chris Diebel, managing director at LPCA Public Strategies and founder of the restaurant Bubba, 36.

Jan. 4: Dennis W. Linderbaum, president of the UnityPoint Health Foundation, 68.

Jan. 5: Charles C. Edwards Jr., retired dean of Drake University and former president and publisher of the Des Moines Register, 70; Jerry Parkin, retired state public affairs director at Deere & Co. and Iowa State Fair board member, 67; Henry B. Tippie, University of Iowa benefactor and namesake of Tippie College of Business, 90.

Jan. 6: John P. Smith, vice president for university advancement at Drake University, 47.

Jan. 7: James Swift, retired chairman of Holmes Murphy, 59; David Lyons, principal at the Iowa Institute and former CEO of CoOportunity Health, 59; Mary Wellman, owner of the Club Car restaurant in Clive, 61.