Government Shutdown Now Affecting SC Breweries

The ATF isn't approving any new licenses for breweries during the shutdown.

“Our permits are just sitting on someone’s desk right now,” said Mike Tourville as he watched his tall, conical stainless steel fermenting tanks being installed in the new River Rat brewery at 1231 Shop Road. “Every week it stays shut down, we lose a week. We can’t even do test runs. Until the feds say so, you can’t brew alcohol.”

Yes, that's right folks. The government shutdown is now preventing local Columbia breweries from opening up, because the federal government has to stamp a piece of paper. I wonder if the enforcement side of the ATF is still working.

Maybe the fact that the the federal government has anything to do with a local South Carolina brewery needs to be re-examined.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/10/08/3027852/government-shutdown-puts-stopper.html#storylink=cpy