Mr Grogan, who was formerly CEO of Broo, is listed in the latest annual report as a 'consultant' to the company. His pay has been cut from $360,000 to $180,000, an amount which is still not... small beer.

The brewer made headlines in 2017 with extraordinary plans for a gigantic 'world's greenest brewery' at Ballarat's BWEZ, with space for 10,000 punters and a myriad of attractions. But the 'Brootopian' vision came to no more than froth and bubble, with a spade never nearing the soil.

A beer and burger bar in Delacombe Town Centre failed to materialise, and a deal with a Chinese distribution firm Beijing Jihua, reputedly worth $120 million, burst after Broo accused the Sino distributor of failing to make royalty payments.

To put a creamy head on all this, Regional Development Victoria blocked the brewer from selling its BWEZ site after Ballarat councillors accused Broo of land banking.

Now Broo is putting its Mildura Brewery and Pub premises on the market for a cool $7 million, as the company moves further into contract brewing. It's thought Broo spent something like $9 million on the fit-out of brewery after purchase, which was the subject of a wind-up order by energy provider AGL Sales.

Which begs the question: where will it all end? Is Broo still a legitimate brewing company?

Industry analysts say while Broo is still technically a brewing company, they are leaning into a contract brewing model rather than an actual brewer, moving from bricks and mortar beer production to being a 'brand'.

Scouring Broo's latest annual report shows Mr Grogan had opted to reduce his remuneration to $120,000 between January and June 2020 as "a short term response to the impact of the COVID pandemic" on the company's performance. Mr Grogan's salary was $360,000 per annum previously.

'In addition he will receive 5 million class A performance rights if the company achieves $10 million sales revenue next year, and another 5 million of Class B performance rights if the company achieves at least $15 million in sales next year,' wrote industry journal Brews News.

'Each performance right converts into one fully-paid ordinary share. Broo's share price currently sits at $0.012 per share. It was noted that Matthew Newberry, also CEO at Catchment Brewing Co., is stepping down as a director at Broo, after it was announced it would not stand for re-election at the upcoming AGM.

'The board will be joined by non-executive director David Zhu, currently director of 61 Corporate Advisory.'

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Although Broo was a tiny concern compared to some of the other independents such as Fermentum's Stone & Wood (recently acquired by British giant Lion), Broo had a market capitalisation of $120 million when it launched, making much of its pitch to the market as being a company 'purely for Australian investors'.

That value is now just over $12 million, a tenth of its initial amount. Much of the fall can be attributed to Broo's plans for a remarkable, adventurous $100 million, carbon-neutral, wind and biogas-powered, aquifer water-sourced mega brewery in Ballarat.

There were ziplines and a 45-metre high viewing platform planned for the 15ha site. When the brewery plan was shelved, Broo was left with a block of land at BWEZ the value of which had appreciated.

Brews News reports that in its annual report to shareholders at the end of September Broo 'announced it had made a loss before income tax benefit of $1.9 million which it reported in its preliminary annual report - an improvement on the $3.5 million losses made the year before.'

'However, in its latest audited report, an income tax benefit of $1.4 million, in addition to profit from discontinued operations of $49,428, meant that total losses for the year were counted as $475,991.'

'This income tax benefit related to the expected capital gain on the disposal of the Ballarat property.'

"This has been on the basis that the realisation of the losses has been deemed probable," said the company.

The sale of the land is still blocked by Development Victoria. In a statement to the ASX on October 11, Kent Grogan said Broo had 'agreed with the purchaser to further extend the date for obtaining the relevant approvals from Development Victoria for the sale of the Ballarat Property to 10 November 2021.'

"The Company is currently in communications with Development Victoria in relation to the matter and will provide a further update to shareholders in due course."

Questioned about Broo's plans for the BWEZ land, Minister for Regional Development Mary-Anne Thomas would not be drawn.

"Well, negotiations occur between anyone that wants to be part of BWEZ, and Development Victoria, and they are commercial-in-confidence negotiations.But our interests are in realising the aspiration for BWEZ and delivering as many jobs as possible, and that will remain our commitment," Ms Thomas said.