On May 18, Søren Parker Wagner announced his resignation as co-owner of Dry & Bitter Brewing Company in Gørløse, Denmark, which he’d founded in 2015 and, until this week, co-owned with Jay Pollard. The resignation followed allegations he used his position in the beer industry to pressure women to accept his sexual overtures and that he made repeated, unwanted advances toward women. These stories came to light through a series of Instagram Stories shared by Notch Brewing’s production manager Brienne Allan beginning May 11.
Targets of and witnesses to Wagner’s behavior, characterized as aggressive and coercive, first shared their experiences with Good Beer Hunting in August 2019, with more coming forward in 2020. But following public claims against Wagner that surfaced on Allan’s Instagram Stories this month, more women and men corroborated and expanded the scope of these allegations. In total, seven current and former beer industry professionals have detailed Wagner’s pattern of physical intimidation and assault, sexual targeting of intoxicated women, and threats of professional retaliation. In almost all cases, these sources confirmed each others’ accounts.
These alleged behaviors span years, but their impacts are still felt today. Sources describe a history of Wagner’s behavior that made others fearful for their safety, eventually culminating in public outcry that forced Wagner’s resignation from his companies.
[Content warning: This story includes discussions of sexual harassment and physical assault.]
In response to GBH’s request for comment, Wagner referred to a personal statement he’d posted to Dry & Bitter’s Instagram on May 18. In it, Wagner wrote, in part: “As many will have seen, there have been several allegations made against me personally online throughout the last week in regards to how I have conducted myself towards women in the beer industry. Reading these accounts have made a deep impact on me and made me realize that I have made some women very uncomfortable with my behavior which is something I deeply regret and that I am deeply apologetic for.”
Dry & Bitter employees Marian Reed and David Perry say they have begun an investigation into this matter and are working to reach out to women who contacted Allan about Wagner. They declined to say when they first became aware of these allegations. In a statement to GBH, Reed and Perry wrote: “We are unified in our belief that the reports Brienne [Allan] shared demand immediate action, and we are taking them very seriously. We will continue the dialogue we started with our community to show how people in craft beer can listen, learn, and act. We will need time to finalize our action plan and we are working on it every day.”
Allegations against Wagner share commonalities with others that have been posted this week as part of a watershed #MeToo moment in the brewing industry. Many of the incidents sources describe to GBH occurred at or around beer festivals, which are events that can represent a safety risk for women and non-binary people. They also highlight the role that alcohol plays in increasing that safety risk.
The earliest account of Wagner’s sexually intimidating and violent behavior shared with GBH was said to have occured in 2013. (The woman who relayed this account did not want to be named because she is involved with beer festivals and fears professional consequences for speaking out.) This woman was not working in the beer industry in 2013 but was connected to Wagner socially. She and a group of friends were drinking at Fermentoren in Copenhagen, a beer bar that Wagner co-owned until May 17; he is now on a leave of absence from Fermentoren.
This woman describes Wagner’s repeated sexual advances toward her at the bar on a night in 2013, even after she rebuffed him. She says that he attempted to physically separate her from her friends by leaning over her and positioning his body between her and the rest of the group, and that he seemed especially interested in her because she was intoxicated.
“His thing was that he would always push drinks on girls pretty obviously,” she says.
Outside the bar, as the woman attempted to leave on her bicycle, she says Wagner tried to stop her from getting on her bike by shoving her. She describes an ensuing “playful” fight—mostly light shoving—that quickly became a real altercation, resulting in Wagner pushing her into a metal street sign. The woman says she sustained minimal bruises from the fight. (Another source says they heard about this event shortly after it occurred.)
Wagner never contacted the woman after this, she says, but she saw him at subsequent beer festivals and tried to avoid interacting with him. She says she heard from colleagues and friends that his aggression wasn’t uncharacteristic, and she describes sexual intimidation and targeting intoxicated women as his “pattern.”
Two other women who spoke to GBH, only one of whom wanted her name to be used, described being physically cornered by Wagner at bars after they had turned down his advances. In both cases, Wagner used his legs (when seated) or his full body (when standing) to block the women’s paths away from him. A male brewing industry professional was a witness to one such encounter and confirms the woman’s account.
One of these two women is Brienne Allan, who says the encounter took place following the Friends & Family & Beer festival hosted by Cloudwater Brew Co. in Manchester, England in 2019. Allan says Wagner had made sexual advances to her throughout the festival, both verbally and via Facebook messages throughout the day, and continued to pursue her during an after-party at Cloudwater. She says he physically hovered over her at the party, and told her repeatedly to get on his motorcycle and come home with him. To avoid him, she headed to the restroom; Wagner soon walked into the restroom behind her.
“I went to use the bathroom, but they have unisex restrooms, and he followed me into the bathroom,” Allan says. “When he finally went into a stall, I just ran out.”
She says a group of her friends then “snuck” her out the back door of Cloudwater and to another location.
“I’m super, super fucking lucky that I didn’t have to experience things that a lot of other women did,” Allan says.
Allan told Paul Jones, co-founder and managing director of Cloudwater, of this incident the next day; Jones says he made Cloudwater employees aware of her account at that time. In the ensuing months, Jones says he heard other reports of Wagner’s “dominant misbehavior towards women,” at which point Cloudwater ceased any professional dealings, like festivals or collaborations, with Dry & Bitter. Jones says he didn’t publicly share what he’d heard about Wagner because he was trying to protect the women involved, many of whom did not want their stories to come to light at that time. Jones did contact GBH in 2019 about Wagner and suggested reporters look into his behavior. GBH began talking to others and investigating the claims shortly thereafter.
Other sources describe physical intimidation similar to what Allan experienced. Another woman—who asked not to be named because she fears retaliation from Wagner—recounted that Wagner used his body to physically corner her in a bar and prevent her from leaving. Her attempts to move to other areas of the bar resulted in him following her or waiting for her outside of the bathroom. Eventually, she was able to join a group of friends and obscure herself from his view until he left the bar.
While no women who spoke to GBH sustained serious physical injuries as a result of interactions with Wagner, several describe fearing for their safety. They describe his imposing stature (they say he is over 6 feet tall), explosive anger, and tendency to contact them relentlessly after they’d asked him not to or stop.
“It was violent in terms of how angry he would get,” says a woman who worked in the Copenhagen beer industry and asked not to be named out of concern for her safety. She says Wagner has shown up at social events she was attending when he was not invited. “Him not being able to control his anger is something I’ve experienced. He is vicious.”
As with so many instances of harassment in the beer industry, sources say alcohol enabled Wagner’s behavior. Every person who spoke to GBH independently stated that Wagner in particular seemed to make sexual advances toward women who had been drinking heavily because he perceived them as more willing to accept those advances.
“The first time we actually met and he tried to engage with me was when I was passed out drunk at a bar I felt comfortable with … He basically approached me sleeping in this chair and tried to take me home with him,” one woman (the above-mentioned industry professional who worked in Copenhagen) recounts.
Coy Eakes, co-founder and creative director at Gamma Brewing Company and the head brewer at Collective Arts Brewing in Brooklyn, worked for Wagner as a brewer from 2015-2017. Subsequently, Gamma shared a location with Dry & Bitter. Eakes describes witnessing two incidents of Wagner sexually targeting intoxicated women, one of whom “absolutely could not consent.” Eakes says in that particular instance, the 20-year-old who Wagner began kissing was “so drunk in a bar that she couldn’t keep her head up. I mean, she was spitting on the floor and almost falling out of her seat.” Eakes made eye contact with the bartender, who he says subsequently stopped the interaction between Wagner and the woman. Because the bar, Dispensary, in Copenhagen, is one that Wagner co-owned, Eakes says the matter was handled “delicately.” (It’s not clear whether Wagner maintains his co-ownership of Dispensary; he did not respond to that question when asked via email.)
“He continually kept tabs on her state until he felt it was appropriate to make a move,” Eakes says. “Very predator and prey.”
In another incident that Eakes recounted, which occurred following a beer festival in Estonia, Eakes says he observed Wagner speaking with a visibly intoxicated woman. Eakes, Wagner, and the woman were all waiting for taxis. Eakes describes the woman as looking “very drunk and uncomfortable” and turning away from Wagner while Wagner was “pleading his case for going home with her.”
“Next thing I know they’re in a cab together; no idea what happened after that,” Eakes says.
Eakes says that when he raised concerns about Wagner’s behavior with him, he was “gaslit and lied to.” (Gaslighting refers to a form of psychological manipulation by which a person causes someone to doubt their own reality and perceptions.) Fearing professional consequences and for years still sharing a brewing space with Dry & Bitter, Eakes didn’t feel comfortable sharing these accounts until now. Eakes says up until recently, Wagner could have damaged his career.
“He still had a lot of power over me and I was scared to speak up,” Eakes says. “It’s shameful but it happens, unfortunately.”
Eakes and two other sources say that in social situations and on his personal Facebook account, Wagner is often a vocal supporter of women and women in the brewing industry.
They say this is a ruse, and is intended to deflect criticism of his own behavior. They say it also amounts to a form of gaslighting. One woman who was romantically involved with Wagner describes this as a confusing aspect of their relationship. If he was a feminist, were her feelings of discomfort with his coercive actions her fault?
“He has used the means available to him—bar, alcohol—to blur the lines of consent and have things go his way,” says a woman who was a former patron of Fermentoren and who also knew Wagner socially. “Unfortunately he’s left a long trail of inexcusable behavior, made worse by his nonstop, hypocritical ally propaganda.”
While some women feel that Wagner’s resignation from Dry & Bitter is the resolution they’d hoped for, others express conflicting emotions. Though they believe professional consequences for his behavior are appropriate, they’re also aware that Wagner is just one individual within an entire industry that is often hostile and unsafe for women.
“The amount of ridiculous stuff that women put up with in the industry is obviously super not okay. I think there needs to be a bigger conversation surrounding it,” says the woman who alleges she was in a physical fight with Wagner in 2013. “But clearly [sharing our stories] is working. He’s resigned.”
Allan says the messages of support she’s received after sharing her own stories and those of other women are what’s motivated her to keep sharing them, despite the emotional and potentially legal consequences.
“It’s people saying, ‘Thank you, thank you for saying something because everyone’s been so afraid to do it for so long,’” Allan says.
She’s also encouraged by breweries and male brewers vocally condemning gender-based harassment and violence—and attaching professional consequences to that harm.
“If people feel safer being in the industry [as a result] … hopefully this is a good first step.”
Claire Bullen contributed reporting to this story.
Words by Kate Bernot