Craft breweries across the country are facing the sobering effects of the government shutdown as a little-known government agency tasked with regulating the industry remains shuttered.
With the federal government more than a week into the shutdown, the closure of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has stopped craft breweries from producing and selling new beers, The Associated Press reported. The agency’s closure could provide major delays for brewers looking to introduce new ales into the market, creating quite the headache for the burgeoning industry.
“One could think of this shutdown as basically stopping business indefinitely for anyone who didn’t have certain paperwork in place back in mid-August,” Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, told The AP.
Craft breweries looking to begin concocting new blends must submit paperwork to the Bureau, causing companies with applications in limbo to lose thousands of dollars as the shutdown continues. And for new brewer Mike Brenner, his dream of owning his own craft brewery is slowly becoming a nightmare.
“My dream, this is six years in the making, is to open this brewery,” Brenner, who was working to open a brewery in Milwaukee, Wis., said. “I’ve been working so hard, and I find all these great investors. And now I can’t get started because people are fighting over this or that in Washington. … This is something people don’t mess around with. Even in a bad economy, people drink beer.”
According to The AP, the shutdown could cost Brenner approximately $8,000 for each month the opening of his brewery is delayed.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau serves under the umbrella of the Department of Treasury and is responsible for collecting excise taxes from alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition sales, regulating labels and advertising for such enterprises, and managing the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition industries, its website states.
And though brewers’ future ales remain stalled, the agency continues collecting and processing taxes from companies.
Typically, the TTB takes as long as 75 days to process applications — a daunting wait for breweries that introduce new, oftentimes seasonal flavors as much as every quarter. With the shutdown, though, that process has become even slower.
“It’s just aggravating,” Todd Stevenson, chief operating officer of Lagunitas Brewing Co., said. “It is frustrating that government can’t do its job. Doing what they’re doing now is unprecedented.”
Congress sits in gridlock for the eighth day as members of the House and Senate work to approve a series of mini-funding bills. But federal agencies remain shuttered and little progress has been made to re-open the government and restore funding.
