The government shut down is having effects not just on federal workers’ salaries, but on a wide range of things like science experiments, wedding licenses and beer production.
One of the agencies shut down is the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TBB.) Which means no new beers.
Breweries have to apply for a permit and get approvals before they can begin operations on new beers.
The federal agency in charge of approving labels has also been shut down- which will stop breweries from getting any beer that was in production approved to get to the public for sale.
Even when the government opens back up- there will still be a delay due to the backlog of requests for approval.
While this will definitely hit some of the bigger breweries… the ones that will be mostly hit are the small local breweries.