The team at Atlas Brew Works prepared their special spring release the same way they do with every new beer. Late last year, they started fermenting, had a couple taste tests, and finally—the last step before canning the brew—they sent the design for the beer’s label out to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Because of the government shutdown, the process halted there.

Now the Ivy City brewery is stuck with a whole tank of IPA brewed with fresh apricots that may never hit shelves. “It’s fermenting, currently,” says Justin Cox, Atlas Brew Works’ CEO and founder. “That will have to sit in our tank.”

Part of the Department of the Treasury, the TTB regulates alcohol, tobacco, or firearm-related businesses in a handful of ways: If you’re opening a liquor store, distilling a new liquor, or paying taxes on your cigar shop, you’ve got to deal with them. The TTB also reviews labels on cans, bottles, and kegs of all wine, malt beverages, beer, and distilled spirits in the United States, ensuring they carry information like the alcohol content by volume and the Surgeon General’s warning.

Having been deemed nonessential in the wake of the shutdown, the agency has suspended processing applications for label review, meaning that Atlas’ apricot IPA label—along with who knows how many other brewers, distillers, and other alcohol manufacturers around the country—is stuck in limbo. A notice on the bureau’s homepage warns visitors that its personnel are neither reporting to work nor responding to any inquiries. “Submissions will not be reviewed or approved until appropriations are enacted,” the site says.