Maine Beer Industry Feels Effects of Government Shutdown

I suppose most of wouldn't have realized, until now that is, that there is a federal bureau that is responsible for issuing approvals on beer labels for out-of-state sales. Well, there is. Evidently this bureau has been shutdown since December, 22nd, causing some local Maine breweries to feel the proverbial 'pinch' of this shutdown.

According to the Kennebec Journal, some Maine micro brewers are worried that sales could take quite a nosedive the longer this shutdown continues. For exmple, down in York, 'SoMe Brewing Company has been trying to expand to add 'York Beach Beer Co.' to it's small business umbrella and had been in the process of getting approval from the federal Tax and Trade bureau PRIOR to the shutdown commencing. Unfortunately, since then, everything has been left in limbo and they fear nothing will move forward with the approval process until the government reopens- and who knows when that will be?