Shutdown means no new beer from craft brewers

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The federal government shutdown could leave America's craft brewers with a serious hangover.

Stores will still offer plenty of suds. But the shutdown has closed an obscure agency that quietly approves new breweries, recipes and labels, which could create huge delays throughout the rapidly growing craft industry, whose customers expect a constant supply of inventive and seasonal beers.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, is a little-known arm of the Treasury Department. The agency 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, which represents more than 1,900 U.S. breweries.

A woman who answered the phone Oct. 2 at TTB's headquarters in Washington abruptly hung up after explaining that the government was shut down.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20131009/US--Shutdown-Brewery.Blues/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

This is where the fun ends.

[Novembro 1,763]

I'm not okay with this.