Capital Brewery minority shareholders file suit against majority owners

A group of Capital Brewery minority shareholders have filed suit against the brewery’s majority ownership, alleging misconduct. The minority group, led by former brewmaster Kirby Nelson, claims Capital Brewery President Scott Weiner and Director Richard King froze them out of important decisions, including a credible offer to purchase the business in 2011.

Nelson is now the brewmaster at Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona, which is owned by Carl Nolen, the former Capital Brewery president who was asked to leave the company in 2011. Shortly after being asked to leave, Nolen and his brother Mark Nolen made an unsuccessful offer to purchase Capital Brewery.

The 12-page lawsuit claims Weiner and King have been running Capital Brewery for their “personal gain” at the expense of the minority shareholders’ interests, according to a report in The Wisconsin State Journal.

The suit asks the court to dissolve Capital Brewery, with a forced buyout distributing company assets, and to award other compensatory and punitive damages.

Last year, Capital Brewery announced plans to build an $11 million brewery in Sauk City, but the minority shareholders group claims the owners have “imminent plans” to relocate the business entirely out of Middleton, something Weiner and King deny.