Workers approve beer, wine and spirits labels for market. But that process has been corked, and new small-batch releases are not allowed to leave the production facilities. This is causing a stink for breweries and distilleries, such as Manatawny Stillworks craft distillery out of Pottstown.
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Art Etchells is the manager of the distillery's tasting room in South Philly.
"One of my ideas that I haven't floated to our distiller ... is that maybe we re-utilized some of those old releases that we did before," he said. "We did a coffee whiskey with Rival Brothers Coffee. So, we could do that again, because we have the label approval we have to blend the whiskey. But that's not a matter of, like, aging something. So we could bring that back."
The label has been approved already, so they can use it again.
"It was suppose to be a one-off," Etchells said. "But maybe it's a two-off."
The distillery was planning special events for a triple release next month of a whiskey, rum and gin that has been aging in port barrels. But that may not happen, because the government has yet to give them a green light.
He says canceling special events affects business on a variety of levels.
"From getting people in the door and having entertainment, to there's a printer that is not going to be printing any labels, there's boxes that is not getting produced, there's drivers that aren't delivering things — so all of that cascades down," Etchells said.
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