Here’s a weird consequence of our stunted economy; when the state government in Minnesota shut down July 1, MillerCoors “had 39 ‘brand label registrations’ that expired last month, and the employees who process renewals were laid off when state government shut down July 1 in a budget dispute,” according to an AP story published today online entitled MillerCoors becomes casualty of Minnesota shutdown. Area wholesalers and then retailers could be out of the effected brands in as little as a few days, the story cautions. Hopefully, there’s enough craft beer in the pipeline to satisfy demand and maybe even create a few converts in the process.
Wow. This is crazy.
It’s not beer production, it’s just distribution of MillerCoors stuff. They do not have the right paperwork in place to sell their beer, because it expired. And they cannot get it renewed because all the people who renew those things have been laid off due to the shutdown.
You can still produce beer in the state (assuming that you renewed all your licences etc before the shutdown), and you can even still buy AB-Inbev stuff too. Just the 39 brands of MillerCoors (let that number sink in) will need to be pulled off the shelves.
Didn’t I read there was a new craft brewery that can’t start brewing because they didn’t get their approval before the deadline?