MINOCQUA, WISCONSIN, July 28 (Nationwide Times) — Wisconsin regulators have notified Minocqua Brewing Co. that the Department of Revenue intends to revoke brewer’s permits for the company’s Minocqua and Madison locations, along with an alcohol beverage warehouse permit for one location. The department said the company has until Aug. 4 to appeal, and it can keep operating while that appeal is pending.
The brewery’s owner, Kirk Bangstad, says he plans to challenge the move. In a Substack post, Bangstad said he received a state letter revoking the company’s permit to operate in Wisconsin and wrote that he would fight the action “tooth and nail.”
What is a brewer’s permit?
A brewer’s permit is the state approval a brewery needs to make and sell beer in Wisconsin. A warehouse permit covers the storage of alcohol for distribution. When regulators revoke those permits, the business can lose the legal authority to keep operating in the same way unless it wins an appeal or gets the permits restored.
In this case, the Department of Revenue said the company can continue operating during the appeal process. That means the notices are not the same as an immediate shutdown.
Why did the state act?
The Department of Revenue’s enforcement concerns center on allegations that beer brewed in Illinois was transported, sold, or stored in Wisconsin without the proper permits and without paying required excise taxes. State agents also seized canned beer from the company in June, according to the department’s enforcement action.
The department has described the matter as an “active law enforcement action.”
Bangstad, in his own post, disputed the action and said the company would fight it. He wrote that the state would “have to pry me out of my taprooms” before he stopped selling beer.
What happens on Aug. 4?
Aug. 4 is the deadline the Department of Revenue gave the company to appeal the revocation notices. If the company appeals, the department said it may keep operating while the process plays out.
If no appeal succeeds, the revocation would stand and the company would lose the permits covered by the notices.
How did this become a bigger public story?
Minocqua Brewing Co. also drew attention earlier this year after posting on Facebook, “Free beer, all day long the day he dies,” referring to President Donald Trump. The company later updated the post to clarify which taproom it meant.
That social media post was separate from the state’s permit action, but it helped make the brewery a political flashpoint as the licensing fight unfolded.
For now, the key issue is administrative, not criminal: the Department of Revenue has moved to revoke permits, and Bangstad says he will contest that move through the state’s appeal process.
