The ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government has an unusual victim: local beer.
The business of brewing and selling new kinds of craft beer has come to a stop as the government shutdown continues. That’s because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also shut down. That means no new beers can be sold in stores.
The president of Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Larry Bell, says the problem affects more than labels. (Disclosure: Bell's Brewing is an underwriter of WMUK.)
“Essentially everybody is frozen in time in the alcohol business, whether it be a brewery, a winery, or a distillery. Whatever was happening 20 some days ago when this started, that’s pretty much where you sit right now.”
Bell says small breweries that must introduce lots of new brands will suffer the biggest impact. He says a business could have its machinery ready to go but are losing money because they can’t be licensed.
“In hindsight, when we look back on this we will see companies who may have failed because of this.”
But Bell says his company will survive the shutdown. He says its problems pale next to those facing other local businesses and government employees.
“It’s the people who work for the Coast Guard and the TSA and their families: those government workers who aren’t getting paid. Those are the people I think about more than the 'First World' problem that we didn’t get a new label approved at the brewery.”
According to NPR, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received 192,000 applications for new beer labels in 2018. That’s about 3,000 applications every week.
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