THE GIST

An international partnership between Munster, Indiana-based 3 Floyds Brewing and Copenhagen-based Mikkeller has dissolved. Leaders from both beer companies have resigned from a collective board of directors and the business will now be restructured. The changes were announced the same week Mikkeller came under additional scrutiny after it was discovered the company lied about its knowledge of a toxic workplace at its San Diego brewery that persisted for years.

Known as Warpigs, the collaborative effort launched in 2015 with a brewpub in Copenhagen and Warpigs USA, a contract-brewed beer brand sold in the U.S. since 2017. According to the Brewers Association (BA), Warpigs USA produced almost 11,000 barrels of beer in 2020, making it the 235th largest BA-defined craft brewery in the country out of almost 8,900.

Ownership and financial documents for Warpigs Copenhagen, maintained by the Danish Business Authority’s Central Business Register, indicate that on Nov. 16, three members resigned from Warpigs’ board of directors effective Nov. 1, 2021:

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, founder of Mikkeller
James Christopher Boggess, 3 Floyds’ head brewer and a member of the board of directors at 3 Floyds Distilling Co.
Nicholas Floyd, co-founder of 3 Floyds

Records show that Warpigs Copenhagen is being represented by a liquidator, Mikkeller CEO Kenneth Madsen, as of Nov. 16. The company’s partnership structure is being liquidated, but it appears at this time that Warpings Copenhagen will continue to operate.

Warpigs Copenhagen announced on its Instagram account Nov. 19 that the brewpub “is no longer a collaborative project but instead fully owned and managed outside of the Americas.” An update on WarPigs USA’s website states: “WarPigs USA is no longer a collaboration project. We are now independent and looking toward our future in brewing.”

WHY IT MATTERS

Millions of dollars are at stake in this Warpigs split: Financial documents for Warpigs Copenhagen show the brewpub reported $3.8 million in gross profits and $1.9 million in operating profits in 2019; and $1.9 million in gross profits and $466,000 in operating profits last year. Similarly, the loss from a portion of sales for WarPigs USA, which produced 11,000 barrels of beer last year, would be sizable for whichever party is cut out of the partnership.

And that’s not the only fallout. The changes at Warpigs come as Mikkeller continues to face questions about its evasive and untruthful responses to harassment, bullying, and misogyny that occurred at the company between 2014 and 2020. One of the women who came forward this summer to share their experience in the company was a Warpigs Copenhagen employee who said she was targeted and belittled by male managers and co-workers. That included a now-former Warpigs general manager who was at the time her direct supervisor.

Neither 3 Floyds nor Mikkeller leadership replied to a request for comment before press time. Without details provided outside an official announcement on social media, it’s unclear why 3 Floyds severed its partnership with Warpigs Copenhagen. The timing of changes to the Warpigs business structure comes one day after new details showed Mikkeller leadership lied about the timeline of when it was aware of workplace safety and harassment issues at its San Diego brewery, a sign 3 Floyds could be distancing itself from Mikkeller.

A former Warpigs Copenhagen employee says the tension between the two sides of Warpigs’ management—3 Floyds and Mikkeller—goes back more than five years.

“When I saw the Warpigs post today I was 0% surprised,” says Kamilla Kristensen, who worked as an events and communications manager for Warpigs between 2014-2015. “The reason I was not surprised was that I already then could sense the contrast in how [Boggess] treated staff was very different to how the rest of us was treated by the Mikkeller side.”

Kristensen says the two companies also seemed to have differing priorities when it came to parts of the Warpigs operation: Floyd, Boggess, and the 3 Floyds team were concerned about the beer’s quality, while the Mikkeller team wanted to prioritize events, a membership club, the food menu, and marketing for special beer releases.

“It was never an ideal match, and it makes sense that it ends now with recent events taken into account,” Kristensen says.

The dissolved Warpigs partnership is just the latest fallout for Mikkeller. Last month, dozens of breweries withdrew from its Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen festival in opposition to the company’s handling of former employees’ harassment claims, prompting the company to abruptly change its tone to one of apology rather than defiance.

Read more of Good Beer Hunting’s coverage of Mikkeller:

Words by Kate Bernot

Sightlines

Go Your Own Way — 3 Floyds Severs Warpigs Partnership with Mikkeller