Last call for Bangstad? State revokes brewer’s license

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has revoked Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad’s brewer’s permit following a months-long investigation into alleged alcohol law violations.

The revocation takes effect August 4 unless Bangstad appeals, which he indicated he would.

While the Department of Revenue (DOR) wouldn’t offer specific comment on the investigation itself, Bangstad had plenty of comment, calling it an “absurd act of heavy-handedness” aimed at him and his company because of his political activism.

The DOR issued a notice of a Brewer’s permit revocation for two Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC) locations — he has locations in Madison and Minocqua — and a notice of an Alcohol Beverage Warehouse permit revocation for one location.

“The Division of Alcohol Beverages is dedicated to the fair and consistent enforcement of alcohol beverages regulations in Wisconsin,” the DOR said in a statement to the Times. “The division is required to follow and implement state law, including ensuring permit holders and licensees follow all applicable laws and regulations. The division takes appropriate actions when these laws are not followed.”

The DOR said Bangstad could operate his businesses during the appeals process.

In a lengthy Substack post and in social media statements, Bangstad said he would fight the revocation “tooth and nail,” and asserted that they would “have to pry me out of my taprooms before I stop selling beer to thirsty progressives who come to visit us.”

“I couldn’t believe it and neither could the law firm that handles my liquor permits,” Bangstad wrote on the Minocqua Brewing Company Times’s Substack page. “Both my liquor lawyer and his law partner give talks at conferences that help train the Department of Revenue’s alcohol enforcement officers on how to interpret Wisconsin’s complicated liquor laws, and both said they’ve never seen the state come down so hard on a brewer before. They both believe that someone in Wisconsin’s government is trying to make an example out of me, and they’ve told me to fight this with everything I’ve got.”

Because of his political activism, Bangstad wrote, beer distributors and major grocery chains have boycotted MBC. 

“Everything we’ve had to do differently than others in the brewing industry stems from the fact that the 2nd tier of the 3-tier alcohol distribution system — which was created by and for huge nationwide breweries and all-powerful distributors — refuses to work with us,” he wrote. “Once you ‘understand’ that all of the laws that [the DOR agent] said we broke were created to help large distributors take advantage of small breweries, you can see the ‘whole picture,’ and how the government can use byzantine liquor laws to put ‘mouthy brewers’ out of business.”

Bangstad took particular aim at a DOR special agent that he said handled the investigation, publicly naming the agent and calling the agent either wildly overzealous or doing the bidding of beer distributors.

“Most of [the agent’s] alleged ‘violations’ stem from us legally contracting with an Illinois brewer to produce our beer, which we did because Wisconsin forbade us from shipping beer online to our customers around the country from within Wisconsin’s borders — even though they allowed all Wisconsin breweries to do this during Covid,” he wrote.

Bangstad said the state refused to allow MBC to rectify violations and come into compliance.

“We constantly tried to do that over the last 6 months, and the DAB [Division of Alcohol Beverages] purposefully blocked all avenues for us to fix the problems they said we had,” he wrote. “As a result, they’re now attempting to use those violations to shut us down.”

No violations amount to more than $500 in lost tax revenue or illegal sales, Bangstad wrote, and he claimed the entire investigation was predicated on false complaints made by “MAGA trolls.”

Bangstad also claims the DOR looked into more than 80 complaints, which he said were found to be meritless. The DOR has not confirmed that with the Times.

In the post, Bangstad took aim at both the Republican and Democratic parties.

“Wisconsin’s Tavern League, who represents Wisconsin’s largest beer distributors, is known to be a powerful ally to Wisconsin’s Republican Party,” he wrote. “There’s no doubt in my mind that both beer distributors and Republicans want me out of this state.”

Bangstad said establishment Democrats were also shunning him and were also trying to stop his endorsed candidate, state Rep. Francesca Hong, from winning the Democratic nomination for governor.

“Wisconsin’s Democratic Party recently disavowed me over a joke I made about giving away free beer when Trump dies, and they’re actively trying to block Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong from winning the Democratic Primary for Governor,” he wrote. “Hong was endorsed early by the Fighting Oligarchy Coalition — a progressive resistance organization that I helped form soon after Trump’s inauguration — that has been highly critical of establishment Democrats for their unwillingness to fight hard enough to save democracy.”

Bangstad said he was committing to fighting on, and he appealed to his supporters to support his legal battle financially.

A months-long investigation

The revocation did not come out of the blue.

In June, DOR agents removed alcohol from Bangstad’s taprooms in Madison and Minocqua while conducting what the agency described as a planned inspection tied to an ongoing investigation. 

In Minocqua, video obtained by the Times showed DOR agents, along with officers of the Minocqua Police Department, loading cases of beer into state vehicles. At least two Minocqua squad cars were on-site as well as four or five state vehicles.

The inspection was planned and coordinated with Minocqua Brewing Company’s legal counsel well in advance, the DOR told the Times.

“We can confirm that, pursuant to an application before the division and consistent with the department’s standard practices and procedures, the department inspected Minocqua Brewing Company premises,” the DOR stated. “Based on a complaint the division received last year, the department has been discussing concerns with the Minocqua Brewing Company and its legal counsel for several months toward reaching a path toward compliance.”

At the time, the central issue appeared to be Bangstad’s contracting with an Illinois brewer to produce his beer.

“Selling alcohol in Wisconsin comes with a unique set of rules and standards designed to protect consumers, promote public health, and track alcohol beverages for tax and safety purposes,” the DOR stated in June. “For example, Wisconsin also has laws that protect the state’s brewers and brewing industry by preventing out-of-state alcohol beverages brewed in Illinois or other states to be sold in Wisconsin without the appropriate permit or license. These state laws ensure that no permit or license holder gains an unfair advantage by bypassing tax obligations or by evading safety protocols.”

Bangstad filed for an emergency temporary injunction that would have allowed him to get his beer back, but a Dane County judge denied the motion on June 24.

Over the years, Bangstad has become the poster child for progressive controversy.

Earlier this year, the Secret Service paid a visit to his Minocqua location after Bangstad made social media posts promising to celebrate the death of President Donald Trump. A judge in Oneida County circuit court also found Bangstad guilty of disorderly conduct, after Bangstad entered a no-contest plea to a charge stemming from a June 27, 2025, incident in which he and others yelled obscenities across the street at Gregg Walker, the owner and publisher of the Times.

Bangstad also lost the largest defamation lawsuit in state history, after a jury found Bangstad guilty of defaming Walker. Bangstad was fined $759,428 in that case and ultimately settled the case for $580,000, mostly paid by his insurance company.

Bangstad has also accused Oneida County officials of political retaliation in zoning disputes, after his zoning permits were suspended and revoked for acknowledged and repeated violations. Those claims have failed to gain traction in other courts.

The most recent dispute now appears headed toward administrative appeal, where the department’s allegations and Bangstad’s claims of selective or politically motivated enforcement will likely receive fuller examination. 

According to the DOR, the next step is to appeal to the secretary of the Department of Revenue, who would assign the appeal to a Department of Revenue hearing examiner for their recommendations as to proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. 

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.