The Danish beerticker.dk is reporting that Anders Kissmeyer was fired by Nørrebro Bryghus. Kissmeyer was one of the founders and as the original brewmaster was one of the reasons for the beer’s success. He seems to be taking it well as part of a necessary restructuring. Kissmeyer still has 20% stake in the company, but I’ve seen these things go badly before, so who knows.
Knut Albert had this to say:
Despite a wide range of inventive beers, collaborations with brewers around the world and a high media profile, the brewery has been losing money at an alarming rate. Both in 2007 and 2008 the deficit was about one million Euros.
Kissmeyer, who founded the brewery in 2000, will still be used as a consultant by the company, but the details of his future status do not seem to be finalized.
I corresponded with Kissmeyer a couple of year ago when I was working on a feature for All About Beer on collaborations and also had an opportunity meet Anders at either CBC or GABF last year (I can’t remember precisely which). I hope things turn around for the brewery and Anders is back in the brewhouse soon.