WASHINGTON – The federal shutdown has left some craft brewers in the lurch since the little-known Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a branch of the Treasury Department, stopped processing permits for new breweries and for approvals needed for out-of-state shipping.
Luckily for Brock Wagner, owner of St. Arnold’s Brewing Company in Houston, he had already survived one shutdown in 1995 so he knew what to do.
“We made sure we filed everything and got ahead of the curve,” he said Monday. St. Arnold’s just started shipping brews to Colorado and later this month will add Florida. To ship out of state, labels and recipes used to make the beer require federal approval, which the company obtained a few months ago.
But, Wagner added, if the shutdown stretches into 2014, it would be a “serious problem” for his brewery.
Nationally, new craft breweries can’t pour their first ales until their permits are processed by the TTB. But most Texas breweries, which are already licensed, won’t feel the pinch until after the shutdown is over.
“What I’m concerned about is the backlog after the shutdown ends and how long it takes them to get permits after it starts again,” said Charles Vallhonrat, president of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. “It means there will be more red tape.”
Last May, the Texas Legislature passed loosened restrictions on the craft brewing industry at the end of the last session, the first major overhaul in 20 years, with hopes to encourage more growth in a flourishing industry. But a pause in permit processing could dampen the economic momentum and plans for expansion into other states.
“The good news, in some ways, is that planning a brewery takes a long time, so hopefully [the shutdown] isn’t a long-term situation,” Vallhonrat said. “But certainly for the guys who were really close to the finish line, this is very disheartening. It is a burden on them that they had a business plan that would have them open this time or have brewers permit, so they could be in trouble now.”
Grapevine Craft Brewing Company in Grapevine, Texas, planned to open in December, but the shutdown has left owner Gary Humble out on a limb.
“It’s frustrating when you’ve done all you can do to run your business and to dot your I’s and cross our T’s and you know it’s not being reciprocrated at the other end,” Humble told the Nightcap, a local news outlet in Texas. “What else do you do? I’m just a guy in Grapevine, Texas, waiting on Washington, D.C.”
Some brewers did not even realize the shutdown would trickle down to their business.
It “didn’t even dawn on me,” said Houston-based 8th Wonder Brewing owner Alex Vassilakidis. His brewery does not ship out of state, so it is not immediately harmed. Vassilakidis also saw a bright side: “Then again, we have no competition if they’re not processing new permits.”