He Promised Free Beer on the Day the President Died. Now He Wants Sympathy Over a $500 Tax Bill.
Kirk Bangstad, the owner of Minocqua Brewing Company, spent five years building a national profile as what one outlet called a left-wing activist and business owner — an anti-Republican super PAC, a failed run for governor, and a Facebook feed that treated the president’s death as a marketing hook.
On July 27, 2026, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue revoked his brewer’s permits at two locations and an alcohol beverage warehouse permit at a third. The stated grounds were unauthorized retail operation, violation of shipping laws, and possession of untaxed beer in an unpermitted warehouse.
Bangstad says the real reason is political. The excise tax at the center of the dispute, by his own accounting, is about $500.
- 3 permits revoked July 27, 2026 — brewer's permits at the Minocqua and Madison locations, plus an alcohol beverage warehouse permit at a third — Wausau Pilot & Review
- $25,000 in canned beer seized by state officials in June 2026, alleged to have been trucked in from Illinois without the proper permits or taxes — Wisconsin Public Radio
- about $500 the disputed excise tax at the center of the case — Bangstad's own figure, not the Department's — Newsweek
- August 4, 2026 the effective date of the revocation and Bangstad's deadline to appeal; he may keep operating while the appeal is pending — Fox News
The hashtag came first. On January 22, 2026, the Minocqua Brewing Company Facebook page promised free beer on the day President Donald Trump (R) died — a standing offer, posted publicly, under the brewery’s own name and branding. It circulated for months as a novelty item in Wisconsin political coverage.
Then, on April 30, 2026, hours after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Bangstad posted again. This is the post that turned a regional curiosity into a national story, and it is quoted here in full because paraphrase would soften it.
“Well, we almost got #freebeerday. Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle.”
Kirk Bangstad · Minocqua Brewing Company · April 30, 2026
The FBI and the Secret Service interviewed Bangstad following the posts. No charges were announced. When Newsweek asked him for comment on the resulting fallout, he did not walk any of it back. He answered the reporter by name and repeated the hashtag: “Khaleda, you and your colleagues are invited to #freebeerday when it happens.”
The regulatory track ran separately, and it started with a truck. In June 2026, state officials seized all canned beer from the company’s Minocqua and Madison locations — roughly $25,000 worth — alleging the product had been illegally transported from Illinois without securing the required permits or paying the appropriate taxes. Wisconsin’s three-tier alcohol system treats interstate movement of untaxed product as a licensing matter, not a paperwork nicety, and the seizure was the first public sign that the state considered this more than a rounding error.
On July 27, 2026, the Department of Revenue issued the notices. Two brewer’s permits — Minocqua and Madison — and an alcohol beverage warehouse permit at a third location were revoked, effective August 4. The Department listed three categories of violation: unauthorized operation of a retail outlet, violation of shipping laws, and possession of untaxed beer in an unpermitted warehouse.
Asked about the action, the Department said only that it is “dedicated to the fair and consistent enforcement of alcohol beverages regulations” and must “ensure permit holders and licensees follow all applicable laws and regulations.” It did not address the brewery’s politics, and nothing in the notices references them.
The Wisconsin brewery that offered “free beer” when President Trump dies has now had its alcohol permit revoked. Wisconsin officials say Minocqua Brewing Company’s permits were revoked over alleged alcohol transport and tax violations involving beer brought in from Illinois. The revocation of the beer license goes into effect on August 4. Liberal activist and brewery owner Kirk Bangstad says he’ll fight the decision “tooth and nail.”
Bangstad’s response was to make the tax sound trivial and the enforcement sound sinister at the same time. In a July 26 newsletter he called the revocation an “absurd act of heavy-handedness,” put the disputed excise tax at roughly $500, and began soliciting donations for a legal defense fund. He then offered two theories, both of them accusations, neither of them evidence.
“either the beer distributors in the Republican Tavern League have an 'in' at the Department of Revenue and are trying to work us over, or someone in Evers' office is trying to shut me up”
Kirk Bangstad · Minocqua Brewing Company newsletter · July 2026
Read that second clause again. The office Bangstad is accusing of silencing him belongs to Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) — a Democrat, running the administration whose Department of Revenue pulled the permits. The man who built a super PAC to elect Wisconsin Democrats is now telling his donors that Wisconsin Democrats are coming after him.
Brewer’s permits, warehouse permits, and beer excise taxes are administered by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, an agency of the executive branch under Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI). The Department’s public statement rests the revocation on permitting and tax violations. Bangstad’s counter-claim of political motivation has not been substantiated in any filing, and he has not produced a document supporting it.
The permit fight did not arrive in a vacuum. Bangstad had already turned the brewery into a political vehicle, founding the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC to fund campaigns against Republicans and using the beer label itself as a billboard for the effort. In May 2026 he escalated, launching a campaign for governor of Wisconsin.
That campaign ended before a single vote was cast. He failed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot — the most basic administrative task in electoral politics, and one every serious candidate in the state cleared. It is a small fact, but it sits awkwardly next to a defense built entirely on the premise that the paperwork problems are somebody else’s doing.
Minocqua Brewing Company permit revoked by state, Bangstad says
There are two accounts here and a reader is entitled to weigh both. The state’s account is written down: three named violations, a documented seizure of roughly $25,000 in product it says crossed a state line untaxed, and a revocation notice with an effective date and an appeal window. Bangstad’s account is a suspicion — that distributors or the governor’s own office engineered the whole thing — offered without a filing, a name, or a document.
He may still win. The appeal is live, and he can keep pouring while it runs — a hearing officer could yet decide the penalty outruns the offense. If the entire liability really is $500, that is an argument worth making in the proceeding the law provides. What it is not is proof of persecution.
Kirk Bangstad publicly wished for the president’s death and monetized it as a hashtag. He is now asking the public to fund his defense against a Democratic governor’s revenue department, over a tax bill he himself measures at about $500. The state put its reasons in writing. He has put his in a fundraising email.
