The owner of Minocqua Brewing Co. said Friday that thousands of dollars worth of beer has been taken from his Madison and Minocqua outlets in a dispute with state officials about paying appropriate taxes to sell beer in Wisconsin that he imported from Illinois.
Minocqua Brewing owner Kirk Bangstad first drew attention to the investigation in a Substack post and a Facebook message he published on Friday after state authorities Thursday seized the beer from the two locations. Bangstad wrote that the value of the beer seized exceeded $25,000.
Bangstad has had a high profile for at least a half-dozen years for his online discourse, political fundraising and selling beer tied to a variety of Democratic political figures. He recently announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, but the paperwork he filed for his campaign last week was rejected as inadequate by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue confirmed Friday that it had conducted an inspection of Minocqua Brewing premises this week, but called the matter “an active law enforcement action” and declined to discuss the specifics “due to the ongoing nature of this investigation.”
In his Substack post, just shy of 2,000 words, Bangstad recounted a lengthy chain of events revolving around his decision to brew beer under contract with a brewery in Illinois, his interaction with the Department of Revenue over the payment of Wisconsin excise taxes for the out-of-state product and a department delay in inspecting or issuing a permit for a refrigerated warehouse in Madison to store his Illinois-brewed beer.
The Department of Revenue said it inspected the Minocqua Brewing locations “pursuant to an application” with the agency. The statement said that, after an unspecified 2025 complaint, the department “has been discussing concerns with the Minocqua Brewing Company and its legal counsel for several months toward reaching a path toward compliance.”
The department also stated, “This inspection was planned and coordinated with Minocqua Brewing Company’s legal counsel well in advance.”
While not specifying the allegations involving Bangstad and Minocqua Brewing, the DOR statement highlighted as an example of Wisconsin alcohol regulations “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.”
Bangstad wrote that his attempts to pay required fees were rejected by the agency.
“We told them that we had complied with all of their demands since the beginning of the year, and had TRIED to pay the measly $500 in Wisconsin excise taxes, but they hadn’t let us,” Bangstad wrote.
Bangstad once honored Gov. Tony Evers with a beer brand.
But after lobbing a charge that the Republican-party-aligned Tavern League could be inspiring enforcement action against him, Bangstad wondered in his post whether his criticism of Evers over the last year “for not being proactive in stopping Trump’s regime from abusing Wisconsinites” had made himself the object of “a lesson” from the administration.
