OBNOM and the Story behind the Inoculation Emancipation Party

OBNOM and the Story behind the Inoculation Emancipation Party

So we’ve been advertising all week about our 2nd leg of the Inoculation Emancipation Tour at Funk’s Pub in Fitchburg this coming Saturday, June 12, from 11am-7pm, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind everyone why this event is happening in Fitchburg and not Minocqua.


The story of how a fun and civically responsible event has happened in two locations OTHER than our hometown is linked to OBNOM, the “Old Boys Network of Minocqua.” Here’s the highlight reel that we’re hoping gets made into a TV series someday—assuredly a comedy much like the “Dukes of Hazzard.”

  1. Last summer, a town board member held a gathering with the local waterski troupe that became a super spreader event and closed down much of Minocqua for 4 days, and the Minocqua Brewing Company lost over $30K in revenue.
  2. The Minocqua Police refused to enforce Governor Evers Mask Mandate, undoubtedly causing more disease in our town.
  3. We hung a huge Biden sign on our building and the Oneida County Board illegally threatened to fine us.
  4. Our local alt-right conspiracy theory fish wrapper, the Lakeland Times, continuously bullied Linda Conlon, our County Health Official, for trying to protect residents from Covid, wasting her time and sending a chilling effect throughout the county that undoubtedly stymied efforts to contain the spread of disease.
  5. Trying to save our business after closing due to Covid, we started making #progressivebeer but were boycotted by OBNOM grocers and liquor stores even though demand for our beer was skyrocketing. Luckily we were saved by the Lac du Flambeau Tribe who decided to carry our beer at their Country Market.
  6. After selling our old building no longer suited to production brewery, MBC bought a historic building about to be razed in March to create a taproom, but OBNOM delayed the close of the building by two months and successfully killed our chances of opening this summer, probably erasing $500K of potential revenue.
  7. OBNOM Landlords illegally harassed MBC owner Kirk Bangstad for months to convince him to leave a rented house on Lake Minocqua, and finally kicked him out in May.
  8. The Lakeland Times is suing the Minocqua Brewing Company for defamation, a frivolous and spiteful case that will undoubtedly lose, but one that will cost a lot of money to defend.
  9. The Town of Minocqua, while facing an abysmal vaccination rate of only 47% due to Republican misinformation scaring people about vaccine safety, refused to allow MBC to throw a fun party which would have incentivized vaccination by providing free beer with a vaccine “shot.”

And that, dear friends, is why we’re having our second Inoculation Emancipation party in Fitchburg instead of #boycottminocqua, where vaccination rates are at 67% and there isn’t nearly the need to incentivize people to get vaccinated through fun parties and free beer.

The state of Wisconsin is unfortunately two very different places—one like Dane County where science and honest government rules, and another, like #boycottminocqua, where conspiracy theories, corruption, and obstruction cast a dark shadow.

Well that’s why we’re donating 5% of all of our profits to the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, which was created to make Northern Wisconsin’s politics as clean as our lakes and streams.

Our communities #upnorth were not always this messed up, and we’re gonna figure out a way to make them great again, one beer at a time.

Get your tickets for this Saturday’s Party today and save $5 the link is here.

And remember, to get in you’re gonna have to show proof of full vaccination +2 weeks for full protection.

Apart from the music area will be a “shot and a beer tent” where the Dane County Public Health department will be giving one and done shots of Johnson and Johnson vaccine and participants can get a free beer to wash it down.

P.S., If you’d like to register your disdain for how our town and county has behaved over the last year, here’s few links:

Oneida County Board Chairman David Hintz: dlhintz@hotmail.com

Minocqua Town Board Chairman Mark Hartzeim: chairman@townofminocqua.org

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