US Government Shutdown Affects Beer Industry

Must be nice. I work 10 hour days and bust my ass all day. When I don’t bust it all day I hear about it.

Enjoy

 

In wine and beer, there are 'classes' which mean the product ABV is within a certain rainge. At least for wine, there are a bunch of rules about this but these rules were written way back at Repeal and don't reflect the current market and industry. As for bottling date I don't think that's required in any situation - it's the breweries adding that on their own. There are breweries around here (Sacramento) that put those old school grocery store price stickers on the 4/6 pack can holders with the brew date on them.

As for beers not having the ingredients listed, that's because they aren't regulated by the FDA. That's purely an FDA thing and as long as it's the TTB regulating them, I doubt the beer and wine industries will ever be required to list ingredients.

 

With wine, but not with beer - at least at the Federal level: https://www.ttb.gov/tax_audit/taxrates.shtml#Wine18

Of course for beer, listing ABV was long prohibited unless required by the state. After a suit by Coors that went to the SCOTUS, the BATF changed the rule to allow it, unless prohibited by the state.
§7.26 Alcoholic content [suspended as of April 19, 1993; see §7.71].
(a) The alcoholic content and the percentage and quantity of the original extract shall not be stated unless required by State law.
§7.71 Alcoholic content.
(a) General. Alcoholic content and the percentage and quantity of the original gravity or extract may be stated on a label unless prohibited by State law.

The proposal for ingredients listing on beer and other alcoholic beverages has been kicking around since the 1970s (like in this 1974 Memorandum from the BATF) pretty sure their were a similar proposals in 1990s and again in the early 2000s.

 

Sounds like you need a government job, sure there are plenty in the fine state of PA. www.USAjobs.gov

 

Problem is that there is no guarantee of retroactive pay, though it has happened in the past. Also no idea if we're going back next week or next June.

 

Our SN Beer Camp beer got screwed over during the last shutdown ... beer was brewed and then couldn't be shipped for many weeks after. #sadface

 

That sucks ... !

 

On the bright side ... perhaps some breweries won't try to release 179 different beers in one year. ;-)

 

Won't somebody think of the children!?

 

Yeah that's rough. Not sure if this applies for beer, but later last year TTB put out an industry circular for wineries that they were expanding exemptions for applying for new COLAs when you are just changing things like description of the wine on the back label, what food to pair with it, some sustainability messaging. Hopefully they eased things up for breweries also so they might be able to get away without submitting COLAs where they don't have to.

edit: I just looked it up, and it does apply to breweries, so maybe you beer industry folks have a few more options than you thought you had. Here it is:
https://ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/18-2.shtml

 

After reading several takes on what the TTB does and doesn’t do, it sounds like all they really do is add another level of beaurocracy and no real value. Like the dude in Office Space that invented “jump to conclusions” game.

 

Did BeerAdvocate have its own Beer Camp beer? (If so, what was it? Did it at least go on tap in California?)

 

I'm not here to defend the TTB, but I'll tell you a few things that the do:
-approve new licenses on the federal level (this is the main #1 thing new wineries and breweries have to do, relating to permits)
-laws on what may and may not be added to wine and beer, or limits on certain things
-approve/deny label approvals
-collect Excise Tax
-answer the phone and emails when we have questions, and offer us guidance when former cellar rats who have become production managers don't speak legalese
-require periodic reporting of production (ok this is flat out a drag)
-ensure a certain amount of confidence the consumer may have that the products they buy are safe, legal, and not fraudulent

They've actually been loosening up over the years. For example, for wine, the lower tax rate was extended from wines under 14% abv to under 16% abv. Also as I posted above, they recently increased exceptions under which a new label approval does not need to be submitted, when changes are minor.

It's been brought up in these forums a few times about how people wish breweries listed all their ingredients. To the TTB's benefit, they aren't going down that path.

 

I appreciate your insight and I’m certainly not interested in taking away from that, but rather to explain why I have my opinion in what I see is at best, overlap in government agencies.

What ingredients can or can’t be added should be an FDA function (FDA likely never given the mandate in order to protect the existence of TTB); excise taxes should be done by the IRS; issuing licenses and label approval should be consumer protection / Federal Trade Bureau. Answering questions about navigating the TTB seems self serving.

I am of the opinion that the government wastes more money than it spends meaningfully, partially due to bloat. As a business owner you would consistently look for opportunities to reduce cost. The government never has to, and we allow them to blow our money with virtually no accountability. The shutdown only effects 15% of the budget, that’s because a sickening 85% of the budget automatically renews. Let that sink in - what is that, 17 TRILLION of our money just gets spent with little or no oversight and accountability? That’s why I take exception to most every government agency when their mandate seems superfluous given the capabilities of other agencies.

Just my $.02, not looking to offend anyone.

 

Don't worry, @Giantspace, some of us with government jobs have to work hard still (with a promise to be paid later ...) Just like many private sector jobs - some people have to work hard and some don't have to work as hard. But in this case, the people approving labels don't have to work at all and will likely still get paid. That seems a little like retirement.

 

No truer words have ever been spoken. As a government worker I see this first hand everyday.

 

The TTB, like the IRS, is part of the Treasury Dept. and only dates from the early 2000's (when the ATF was moved into the newly created DHS) A few years later the Obama administration apparently proposed to fold the TTB into the IRS or (from a 2013 Wine & Spirits Daily post):

Apparently the industry itself was against it:

 

I didn't always have this sweet ass job that allows me to surf the internet, just for the last four yrs. Paid my dues in the trenches so that I could climb into this nice cushy desk. Spent the last furlough working out of state away from home with a government credit card that wouldn't work for anything. We had to stay and get the job done while hoping the government would pass a budget before the hotel bill was due, thankfully it did or we would have been responsible to pay it ourselves.

 

The very last thing I worry about in these idiotic political exercises called government shutdowns is any effect on the beer industry. As Vicente Fox might say, we ain't paying for no freaking wall.....And neither are we! I once compared 2018 to 1968, but 2019 is a different world altogether.