NORFOLK, Va. — Days after the CEO of Armed Forces Brewing Company claimed a "woke mob" prompted him to decide to move his brewery out of Norfolk, various businesses say the brewery owes them money.
Wisconsin-based hop grower Matt Miles sells hops to Armed Forces Brewing Company’s Norfolk brewery.
An invoice he shared with WTKR showed he provided more than $2,300 worth of hops from his farm to the brewery in January.
Miles said he has not yet been paid for the product.
"We’re definitely going to be hurting from not receiving this payment from them," Miles, a Marine Corps veteran who added that Armed Forces Brewing Company has paid for previous shipments, said. "It’s a company that I thought I had something in common with, that I could trust."
Miles said he was talking to an attorney about his legal options.
Freelance Security LLC President and CEO Vernon Clifton told WTKR that he too was weighing his legal options.
"I can’t say I’m happy at all about this situation," Clifton said.
Clifton said his Portsmouth-based company hadn’t been paid the money he said Armed Forces Brewing Company owed his company for providing security at the Norfolk brewery.
He said he could’ve stopped providing service when he stopped getting paid but wanted to give the company a chance.
“We do realize with the way the world is, customers do have a hard time paying vendors or paying their employees," Clifton said. "We had built a good relationship with them, and like I said, we do have veterans who work for us as well as former police officers. So everyone was dedicated to just stay on board and ride it out.”
A notice from the Norfolk Treasurer’s Office was posted on the brewery’s door as of Monday that said the property and any other company property in Virginia would be levied or sold as needed to pay taxes the company owes.
Online records Monday showed the company owed close to $13,000 in real estate taxes. An SEC filing shows the company had also lost close to $2 million before opening the Norfolk location.
WTKR has repeatedly reached out by phone and email to the company’s CEO for comment, but as of Monday afternoon, he had not responded.
The company has not stated where it will be relocating or when, only that it would be moving out of state.
In a previous report, Beal said he planned to move the brewery's headquarters out of Norfolk, Virginia, "because of the actions of a group of people with a woke agenda."
In an earlier statement to WTKR, Beal said that group continues to "affect our ability to operate profitably in Norfolk. We have closed the taproom and brewing facility in Virginia and plan to relocate our business to a more pro-small business social and economic climate."
The primary pushback the brewery has received, according to WTKR reporting, is over how some people perceive the company’s views on the LGBTQ community.
In December 2023, WTKR reported that a member of the brewery's leadership criticized the Navy on social media for its use of drag performers as military recruiters.
In a previous interview with WTKR, Beal said his company was not anti-LGBTQ.
