It was the social media post that launched a thousand comments. Dan Norris, co-founder of Black Hops Brewing, one of the city’s and country’s best known brands, seemed out of hope as he stated he felt “ashamed” and like a “loser”.

“A lot of people were worried,” the 45-year-old father told this masthead this week. “But I’m not about to kill myself, I was just reflecting on how far I’ve fallen.”

While Mr Norris shared his fragile headspace with the online world, he has also now shared for the first time exactly how the beer dynasty he built with his best friends fell flat.

The Gold Coast and the craft beer industry was rocked when Black Hops Brewing was placed into voluntary administration in March 2024. The business was later liquidated after administrators found it owed more than $7.3 million.

It was an incredible drop from the $65 million the company was said to be worth after a record-breaking crowd-funding campaign in 2022. It raised $2.2 million from almost 1000 people in 24 hours. Along the way, Black Hops brewed the world’s first Call of Duty beer and was voted the top craft brewery two years running.

The brand continues today but it’s not entirely the same business. Late last year a consortium of shareholders and investors bought the assets and brand for $3.2 million, an offer accepted by secured lender Judo Bank despite it being less than half what was owed to creditors.

New CEO is Nick Boots, who said today’s Black Hops Brewing was a different entity, although one original founder Eddie Oldfield remains with the brand.

But for Mr Norris, it’s been a long nightmare since his departure from the company he helped build was announced in early 2023.

He’s lost his fortune, friends and went from living in a $3.1 million Mermaid Beach dream house with $10m worth of Black Hops shares to downgrading to an $800,000 home in much-less salubrious Labrador.

Now he faces losing that house after creditors knocked on his Labrador door to claim almost $2m owed to the bank.

It’s the ultimate business hangover that just won’t stop.

“It’s hard to believe that only three years ago, I was rich. I started, ran and owned the majority of one of Australia’s most loved beer brands, Black Hops Brewing. I owned a brand new mansion in the best suburb on the Gold Coast, Mermaid Beach. When I used to go for walks it would be because I woke up smelling the Pacific Ocean, and I could walk 50m down to the beach to grab a coffee and check the surf,” he posted.

“I was on top of the world. Now I walk to the Labrador shops, in stupid oversized shorts I got on special.

“If my past self saw me right now, walking down this street, he would be ashamed.

“It’s just impossible not to think about how far I’ve fallen, when I’m walking through the streets of Labrador one of the cheapest suburbs on the Gold Coast.”

The Bulletin contacted Black Hops co-founder Eddie Oldfield for this story who said ‘no comment’ and that he had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement. The Bulletin also contacted Judo Bank which did not reply.

HOW IT ALL WENT WRONG … CHAMPAGNE DREAMS ON A BEER BUDGET

Mr Norris said despite public perception Black Hops was powering, ‘the writing was on the wall’ by the end of 2022.

He said a “perfect storm” affected the company, but its biggest mistake was not taking action.

“Our 2021 was just an insanely good year, people had a lot of money coming out of Covid and we grew massively,” he said.

“We were doing $16 million in turnover and we did $1.5 million in profit which was our first legitimately profitable year.

“The business was just cranking, people had money in the market and it was before the cost of living crisis crept in - but you could see it coming.”

Mr Norris said while he could see that the cost of raw materials was increasing, and would soon eat into their bottom line, some at the company insisted it would stay the same - if not get better.

At the same time, sales were beginning to flatline as consumers spent less, but also as the sale of Stone and Wood and Balter brands impacted the craft beer market.

He said with big money behind those labels, brands like Black Hops were pushed out of pub taps. He said much of the sales Black Hops accumulated during Covid was packaged beer sold through Coles and Woolworths, but the supermarket business model was to buy labelled products until they could make their own, which was ultimately what happened with Black Hops again seeing its market shrink.

“The writing was on the wall by the end of 2022. We went from having a super-profitable, successful year in FY 2021 to having basically a break-even year in FY 2022,” he said.

“We had put in a structure where brewers worked four days a week and had four days off but that meant the size of the team and the costs of running the team had pretty much doubled, but we were doing exactly the same volume because the company had stopped growing.

“I said if we don’t change it, we’re going to be running an insolvent company and the company’s going to collapse. But everyone was too scared to make the change.

“What I was proposing would have been firing a lot of people, which is hard. But also scaling back stupid things like a beer allowance for staff. I had a list of how we could save a million dollars, but then in December 2022 they doubled the beer allowance.

“That’s not the kind of financial decision you need to make when a company’s on the brink of collapse. With the numbers I had crunched, I believed I could get the company to break even, but it didn’t happen.

“I’d been trying to convince the guys to talk to a specialist in administration. They just would not agree to it.

“If they weren’t going to make big cuts then I needed to leave. So I left.”

While the ATO was partially blamed at the time for the company’s collapse for chasing mounting tax debts, Mr Norris said that was ‘bulls***’.

Mr Norris said ATO excise debt increased every year and it was nothing new, but something the company should have factored in.

BAD ROMANCE

But Mr Norris said it was not just business dealings that burst his beer bubble, there was also trouble brewing on a personal level.

He said a vocal group of employees were angry after he started a relationship with an employee, with both of them having been with other staff immediately prior to beginning their relationship.

He said he wanted investors to know about everything, to understand there was a messy culture at the time.

“I was willing to leave if it was all too messy, but no one made a decision. I was a director but I was only one, so my hands were tied.

“I understand why people were upset. I had been in a relationship previously with two other staff members and then (we) got together, it was just too soon. And I was the boss.

“I didn’t really know how to handle it either, but I just knew we had to handle it quickly. But that’s not what happened.

“I know that probably lots of people will think the way I behaved, getting into multiple relationships with staff, is gross. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who don’t think that’s appropriate.

“Both of us ended relationships with other staff members and then got together immediately and that caused a huge s**tstorm. And I understand that.

“But you know, I just knew...that she was the one, so I can’t regret our relationship. But I do regret the way that investors were treated.”

THE FALLOUT

In the wake of Black Hops Brewing’s collapse, it was reported its eventual $3.2m sale left lender Judo Bank almost $2m ‘in the hole’, after the bank agreed to halve its loan.

But the truth is it was the guarantors for the bank’s loan who were on the hook: Mr Norris and fellow co-founder and former director Mr Oldfield.

And in January this year, the creditors came calling.

It was Mr Norris’s worst nightmare come true, although he said he did all he could to prevent it.

“When I left, I agreed to the bank’s request that I sell all my shares for $1 and I would then be removed as guarantor for the loan we had taken out,” he said.

“I was concerned the company was going to collapse and that I would be the one losing everything - which was exactly what happened.

“I was the majority shareholder, the most recent round we did had valued my shares at $10 million or something, so it was a big thing for me to give back all of my shares in my own company.

“They dragged it out for about a year, then they put the company into administration … and then three years later they rock up at my house coming after me for $2 million.”

After leaving Black Hops, Mr Norris sold his dream home in Mermaid Beach, using the money to pay back his own mortgage, buying a new coffee business, East Coast Roasters, and purchasing a house in Labrador.

But after receiving that multimillion-dollar knock on his door in January, he said he could not see how he could keep that modest home anymore.

“I was working from home when there was a knock on the door and I was handed a letter that said I owe $1.9 million to Judo Bank,” he said.

“Even if I sell this house I don’t have that … but they’ll get blood from a stone if they can.

“I also owe $100,000 in rent to the site where we had our AWOL venue and I had just figured out a loan to pay them back but now Judo has put a default against me so I can’t settle that either.

“The crazy thing is that I kept trying to tell Judo at the time that there were concerning figures in the business but they took no notice. I did everything I could to get people to do the right thing yet somehow I’m the one who will end up homeless and owing millions.

“Make it make sense.”

THE PRESENT: ‘I’VE LOST ALMOST EVERYTHING’

Now Mr Norris is trying to find a way forward, although his path is anything but clear.

The post he made to social media, the one that alarmed so many, lays bare his current circumstances.

“I’m poor. I’ve lost almost everything, and I could realistically lose ABSOLUTELY everything,” he wrote.

“All we have left is our s**t house in Labrador. We call it ‘Last Stop Labrador’.

“My kids used to look up to me. I know they used to think it was cool that their friends’ dads loved Black Hops. And their footy coach loved Black Hops. He knew I was the Black Hops guy. I used to give him a beer ‘care package’ at the end of the season. I mean that was pretty cool!

“I saw the coach the other day. He was sitting two rows in front of us at the footy game. He didn’t even recognise me.

“I think about how, at the kids’ ages, this current Dan is the one they are going to remember – a loser.

“I’m not unfamiliar with failure. I wrote my first book, The 7 Day Startup, all about my past failures and one little moment where it all turned around. Ironically the book itself was quite successful. Success seems like an impossibility to me now.

“Losing my house (again) is the thing I’m worried about the most. I’m now 45. If I lose this house, realistically, I might never own another one.

“As a scrappy business owner of almost 20 years, I have (almost no) superannuation. I’m kind of regretting draining my limited super during Covid so I could forgo a wage and help keep Black Hops afloat. And for what?

“My self confidence has never been lower.”

But Mr Norris said not all hope was lost. He still has his family, health and beloved partner Erin.

After his post prompted an outpouring from the public, he also knows many others are doing it tougher.

Yet his deepest regret and greatest worry is still for others - namely, those investors who contributed to that record-breaking crowd-funding.

“I just feel so awful for our investors, they were really screwed over. I mean, so were creditors and so were other people, but investors especially were never told what was going on,” he said.

“They still haven’t been. They deserve the truth of everything that happened. There’s more stuff even than what I’ve told you, too.

“As founders we only put in like $100,000 each, investors put in millions of dollars.

“These people were our friends and family and they just got nothing - other than being told by the new Black Hops owners they can get discounted beers.

“I just wish that somehow I could put it all right again.”