The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), a small agency that approves new breweries, recipes and labels, has been closed due to the government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 after Republicans blocked a budget deal to stop funding for Obamacare, the Associated Press reported.
The shutdown of the TTB poses a problem for new breweries and the beer craft industry who need approval on everything from new logos and packaging, to new seasonal flavors and permits to produce and sell craft beers.
Craft brewers build their business by creating beers that are often "quirky" and made with different seasonal flavors. Craft Brewers tend to introduce new seasonal beers every quarter, making brewers nervous as the shutdown continues with no end in sight.
Bryan Simpson, a spokesman for New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo., told the AP his brewery has three recipes and five new labels awaiting approval and a new spring label, Spring Blonde, may get pushed back. More delays might force New Belgium to shell out extra money to speed up the label printing and rush the beer to market.
"Everybody is frustrated in general," Simpson said. "The whole way this has played out has been disappointing for the entire country."
According to the AP, the closing of TTB will not affect large companies like MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch who will be able to continue producing existing products. The agency will continue to process taxes from existing permit holders, but applications for anything new are in limbo.
Before the closing of TTB, craft brewers reported that new applications were taking as long as 75 days to be approved, with wait time predicted to be much longer now.
"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 said.
