When did Hansa Borg get their teeth into Austmann?

Subject line basically says it all. I recently had some sub-par Austmann beers, after having some glorious ones in the past, and I now notice that "(Hansa Borg)" is in their name which I don’t remember from before. So I’m wondering when ownership changed, and whether there has been a noticeable change in quality.

About February 2016

Damn, I don’t actually know Hansa Borg, but I assume based on your subject that Hansa Borg sucks and this is a negative influence? Austman is brilliant from the few beers I’ve had of theirs.

Hansa Borg is the 2nd largest brewery group in Norway.
It consists of 3 macro breweries and 2 craft:

Hansa Bryggeri in Bergen
Borg Bryggeri in Sarpsborg
Kristiansands Bryggeri ( CB ) in Kristiansand

Nøgne Ø -- 54% ownership
Austmann -- 50% ownership

Hansa Borg olso brew Heineken for the Norwegian market under licence

Yeah, seems so. Offlist, mjs just hunted out this which confirms that time period: http://www.matindustrien.no/bransjenytt/hansa-borg-inn-i-austmann/

The beers that really impressed me were in winter 2016, presumably some of the last brews before the buy-up.

It could just be coincidence - the ones that impresses me were porters, and the ones since that were pants were APAs, so clearly would be rancid in comparison. We’ll have to wait and see.

I’ve had 20 of their beers but only two in 2016 (none this year). I think it is more like coincidence that you had some of their better beers first. I’ve had good ones and average ones in all kind of styles also.

From what I can see on their Norwegian site it's still the same people who are running the brewery so you/they might just have had bad luck with the brews. That being said Hansa Borg isn't exactly a friend of micro brewers (ref. Jikiun/Nøgne Ø) so it wouldn't be a surprise if they white collar the soul out of Austmann too.