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Shutdown Pinching Craft Breweries In 'Beer City USA' - As Well As Its Supply Chain

The partial shutdown of the federal government includes the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.  Among the agency’s many jobs is approving labels for beer that is bottled and canned.  Delays in that process will force brewers to hold back on new releases.

Making and drinking beer is big business in Asheville and Western North Carolina.  Disruptions to new releases will be felt – not just at breweries, but also in their very unique supply chain.  

January is a dormant time of year at Rayburn Farmsin Barnardsville – at least in its fields and lone greenhouse.  There is a lot of planning though going on in the mind of owner Michael Rayburn.  “We grow nine different kinds of basil," he says.  "We grow pineapple sage, ginger, different kinds of turmeric, lemongrass, rosemary, different kinds of mints, lemon balm…just about everything we can try.”

His herbs and spices are featured in many of the innovative craft beers that helped turn Asheville into Beer City USA.  “They need large quantities in order to make their batches," Rayburn says.  "So being an actual physical farm, we’re not that many acres, it allows us to maximize our profitability on a small space.”

Wicked Weed is one of Rayburn’s many customers, and its owner Walt Dickinson gives an example of how he uses Rayburn’s herbs and spices.  “We have a brand right now called Uncle Rico’s, which is a Mexican-style lager.   And we’re using lime basil to replace that lime character,” says Dickinson.

Uncle Rico’s is one of Wicked Weed’s many creations – Dickinson estimates they produce as many 150 different beers in a year – that is caught up in shuttering of the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau.   

“Because of the government shutdown, that was a brand we were considering scaling up.  But because of TTB, we’re not sure we’re going to be able to get the label," says Dickinson.  "So if we can’t get legal (approval), that means we can’t make a commitment to Rayburn farms, and that’s going to affect the way he’s producing his crop this year.”

The current backlog to get labels approved is 75 days according to Dickinson, and that’s expected to only grow with each day the partial government shutdown continues.  For Michael Rayburn, that means it could be April until breweries can get production moving again and place orders with him.  “I’m already at this point planning out what seeds I’m going to buy, what plugs I’m going to buy, how I’m going to fit everything into the field, what employees I’m going to hire to help manage that.  If people are backlogged until at least April, they may not buy anything from me until May.”

Basil takes up to four months to grow, so the harvest wouldn’t occur until August on that timeline.  “Which means at that point I’m not hiring anyone because there’s a job that’s not needed.  I’m not going to be planting those early season crops because I’m not going to have anyone to buy them.  So now those greenhouses I buy plugs from or those seed companies I buy seeds from…I won’t be buying from them.”

For Walt Dickinson at Wicked Weed, the delays will be felt for even longer.  “I’m thinking about some new ideas for our stouts next year.  I probably need to have for us to get through all the legal apparatus to make sure it’s legal in the next month and a half.  We need to have the recipe done and submitted to TTB and commitments to farmers on the ingredients I’m going to need.  So we’re already in the window where it’s affecting the end of 2019.”

Every day the shutdown goes on, the backlogs and delays only get longer.  Michael Rayburn faces that reality with matter-of-fact resignation.  “We don’t have a lot of money to play with this business.  We started it with just $3-thousand.  We’re trying to build it without any debt at all.  So, we really don’t like to grow anything unless we know for sure somebody’s going to buy it.”  Rayburn will at least have company on the farm during the shutdown.  His wife Lauren works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture – and she’s furloughed right now. 

Matt Bush joined Blue Ridge Public Radio as news director in August 2016. Excited at the opportunity the build up the news service for both stations as well as help launch BPR News, Matt made the jump to Western North Carolina from Washington D.C. For the 8 years prior to coming to Asheville, he worked at the NPR member station in the nation's capital as a reporter and anchor. Matt primarily covered the state of Maryland, including 6 years of covering the statehouse in Annapolis. Prior to that, he worked at WMAL in Washington and Metro Networks in Pittsburgh, the city he was born and raised in.