Reformation Brewery becomes official craft beer of Kennesaw State Owls

Reformation Brewery became the official craft beer of the Kennesaw State Owls on July 1, 2026, a multi-year sponsorship that gives the North Georgia brewery a bigger game-day platform and gives Kennesaw State Athletics another branded beverage tied to fan traffic. The deal puts Reformation’s Lechuza Flight, a 4.7 percent ABV Light Mexican Lager, into select KSU athletics events and across Reformation’s own venues, while also extending the partnership into the ready-to-drink category with Nocturnal Gold, an 8.0 percent ABV cocktail built on pineapple, yuzu and the brewery’s house-distilled vodka.

The business logic is hard to miss. Kennesaw State Athletics sponsors 18 NCAA Division I programs, with 17 competing in Conference USA as part of the Football Bowl Subdivision, so the school offers Reformation a steady live-events channel far beyond one football Saturday. That matters for a brewery trying to turn local recognition into repeat pours, especially when the beverage already has traction. Reformation said Lechuza Flight began as a small test batch before becoming one of its flagship beers, and Jessica Miller, Reformation’s director of marketing, called it a top seller at the brewery’s venues.

The naming does a lot of the branding work that a generic campus lager usually cannot. Lechuza means owl in Spanish, and Flight nods to KSU’s graduation tradition as well as the school’s broader identity. The cocktail follows the same playbook, with Nocturnal Gold built around the Owls’ black-and-gold colors. Reformation said the cocktail will be available at select KSU athletics events and at its Woodstock and Canton venues starting this summer, alongside the beer. Reformation also operates in Smyrna, a footprint that gives the company a wider North Georgia base than the Kennesaw partnership alone might suggest.

Kennesaw State has already tested this lane. In September 2024, the university launched OWL IN American Lager with New Realm Brewing Company, which KSU described as its first licensed beer. That earlier beer was available during the Sept. 28, 2024 Homecoming football game at Fifth Third Stadium, and it came after KSU’s move to the Football Bowl Subdivision helped spur a prior university-branded beer partnership. The new Reformation deal broadens the model by pairing a beer with an RTD cocktail, not just a single draft option.

KSU Night in Canton on July 23 will give the partnership an immediate off-campus extension, with food, drinks and a portion of registration and donations benefiting KSU General Scholarships. Milton Overton, Kennesaw State’s athletics director, framed the partnership as a fit around excellence, community connection and fan experience. For Reformation, the real test is whether this becomes a meaningful growth channel in North Georgia or just a polished logo swap. The presence at select athletics events, plus the brewery’s own Canton and Woodstock taps, suggests the company is betting on the former.