With government shut down, new Omaha breweries' licenses in limbo

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20131011/GO/131019824/1685#with-government-shut-down-new-omaha-breweries-licenses-in-limbo

Published Friday October 11, 2013

By the time Omaha Beer Week rolls around next February, Tony Thomas hopes that Goldenrod Brewing Co., a new brewery on Farnam Street, is open for business.

Since he and his three co-owners signed the lease on the building in August, that has seemed like a feasible goal. Thomas is an experienced brewer who has worked for breweries in Nebraska and Colorado. He drafted the business plan for Goldenrod when he was still in college. And renovations to his space at 3562 Farnam St. are already underway.

But this month, he and Goldenrod's three other owners hit a roadblock. When nonessential federal government offices shut down earlier this month, a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department called the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau was among them. The bureau licenses new breweries.

Thomas was planning to apply for his license next week.

FULL story at link.