NEW ORLEANS —
Smooth, hoppy, even sweet — these days you can get your beer fix all across the Crescent City.
"When I moved here in the 90’s, it was not great, but now it's on fire," said beer enthusiast Charles Chamberlain.
However, with a government shutdown now in its third week, breweries looking to distribute new craft brews to stores and restaurants are facing some challenges. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is in charge of signing off on all new labels and packaging. Right now, the federal agency is shut down.
"It's an additional layer of complexity in an already complex business," said Mark Logan of Second Line Brewing in Mid-City.
"Label approval has always been a 30-day accepted process so that's your timeline. For us, that could mean potentially missing a beer for Mardi Gras," Logan said.
At Brieux Carré Brewing, the brewery doesn't sell any beer to stores or restaurants, so the company isn't impacted directly by the shutdown. Founder Robert Bostick, however, said he's more worried others, especially new brewers still awaiting label approval.
"A lot of times breweries will brew the beer before they send out their labels (to be approved). If they do, their brew is sitting in a tank for a long period of time. Some of these batches cost tens of thousands of dollars," said Bostick.
Back at Second Line, Logan said if the shutdown goes much longer there could difficulties rolling out anything new, though, he's not hitting the panic button yet.
"I think we still have enough of a window, if it breaks in the next few weeks it would be minimal impact if we were to roll out a new product during this window," Logan said.
The partial government shutdown enters day 20 on Thursday, affecting roughly 800,000 federal employees around the country who are poised to miss their first paycheck of the new year on Friday.
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will travel to New Orleans to address the National Farm Bureau Federation's annual convention being held at the New Orleans Convention Center. He is expected to attend on Monday morning.