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Shutdown Effects Craft Beer!!!!

Dragonfly

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Now this is getting personal.

Craft brewers in Delaware and around the country are the latest group to join the growing list of people grumbling about the fallout from the federal government shutdown.

Brewers won’t stop putting out their best-known brands, but the creative and innovative new beers that have become the hallmark of recent American brewing will slow to a trickle if the shutdown persists.

A small federal agency with the Treasury Department, known as the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, reviews all new breweries, recipes and labels. With government workers furloughed, no one is around to approve the latest creative libations or seasonal offerings from the ever-evolving microbrewing industry.
The shutdown began Oct. 1 after a group of House Republican lawmakers blocked a budget deal in a last-ditch effort to stop funding for President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The resulting halt to all non-essential government activities has affected operations for at least two Delaware brewers and could disrupt the opening of a third.
Milton-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, the 13th-largest craft brewer in the country, is known for its prolific production of special edition beers using unusual ingredients. The company wants to introduce a new beer in December and expected to brew about 5,000 barrels of it in 2014. That plan can’t move forward unless the government approves a new label for the beer.

“This is a big deal for our industry,” said Sam Calagione, president and founder of Dogfish Head. “The growth of American craft breweries is a rare success story in terms of adding Main Street manufacturing jobs in almost every major town and city across this country. And now, the government has shut down a lot of the momentum of the craft brewing industry.”

The situation also threatens to slow down a Dogfish Head plan to open a new brewpub in Chicago this November, Calagione said. Every barrel of beer craft brewers can’t make also costs the government $7 in excise tax.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, called TTB, will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo.


“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,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.

Mispillion River Brewing, a new microbrewery in Milford that started production this week, was fortunate enough to get its TTB approval in July. But the shutdown could present founder and owner Eric Williams with a different kind of snag. For now, Mispillion operates on a small one-barrel brewing system. But the brewery purchased a larger, industrial-sized system that produces 15 barrels, and the equipment is on a ship headed for the Port of Baltimore.

Some have predicted shipping delays given the variety of federal agencies involved in processing imports and exports, and Williams worries about how soon he can get the new equipment into production.

“We have some concerns about getting it through customs and all the agencies that needed to approve it,” he said. “Like any business, right now the name of the game is to open the doors and start making money. The expenses are high to get started, and we need to start making enough money to offset all those.”
Dover-based Fordham & Dominion Brewing Co. had the misfortune of submitting the label for its new beer – a session IPA called Route 1 Pale Ale – a day after the shutdown began, said marketing coordinator Lauren Bigelow. Now, the brewery doesn‘t know when it will get approval from TTB.

Before the shutdown, TTB could take up to 75 days to approve applications, and some brewers fear it could take longer once the government reopens. Fordham & Dominion has several new beers it wanted to release in the beginning of 2014 that could be delayed.

“Things might be backlogged when they do open back up, so we’re questioning whether we’ll be able to do that,” Bigelow said.
Bryan Simpson, a spokesman for New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo., said his brewery has three recipes and five new labels awaiting approval. More delays might force New Belgium to shell out extra money to speed up printing.

“Everybody is frustrated in general,” Simpson said. “The whole way this has played out has been disappointing for the entire country.”


When do we take up arms? I hold every elected official in DC responsible.
 
Now this is getting personal.




When do we take up arms? I hold every elected official in DC responsible.

When the beer stops flowing the revolution begins!! :mrgreen:
 
This is just further proof that govt is too big. We dont need a federal angency of the treasury dept inspecting beer labels. These guys get 100million a year, of which half is spent on collecting taxes. We need to shut it down permanently.
 
What kind of cream-puff job is that - inspecting beer labels. How much does it pay and where can I apply?
 
There is technically no officiating body to enforce the law. **** em. Sell the beer without labels. My bet is the "Bare Batch" would be wildly successful.
 
How did we ever survive without an agency to inspect beer?

Good question. I inspect a lot of different beers, not only for free but I buy the test product to do it. Seems unnecessary to pay a federal employee to do it. Don't we have any Kennedys left to handle it?
 
From my cold, dead, *hic*
 
And the army asembles

 
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