OK, so the partial government shutdown is affecting new brewery start-ups; not good. The upside is that homebrewers can still indulge in their craft. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life; teach a man to brew beer and he drinks like a fish.

So let This Week in Beer News guide you, if not to your next round of brews, then hopefully to a better understanding of beer's role in the world.

See Also: This Week in Beer News: Space Beer, Budvar Beats Budweiser, and Michigan's New Pint Law

The Government Shutdown Screws Local Brewers

The U.S. Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is an integral part of the craft beer movement because it processes brewing permits and approves beer labels and recipe, among other functions. So having it closed due to the federal government shutdown is definitely affecting the little guy. Every brewer is affected by the shutdown in some way, but the brewers who already have approval pending by the TTB are getting screwed the most.

Cigar City Wins Gold at the Great American Beer Festival

Cigar City Brewing is not Florida's biggest production brewery, but it's one of the hottest as it wins a gold medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival in Colorado. They took home the top award for their Poblano beer in the Pro-Am category.

A Better Way to Preserve Beer May Have Been Discovered

Researchers at Rice University developed a new polymer that may keep beer better preserved. By adding a one-atom-thick layer of graphene nanoribbons to the inside of a container, it becomes more impermeable to gas, making it 1,000 times harder for gas to escape, or penetrate the container.

Mission Brewery Makes Giant Beer Can

The brewers at San Diego's Mission Brewery are thinking big in terms of cans. Like Foster's, they are putting their in 32-ounce cans. Not a bad idea, but just go all the way. Even better would be a brewing company that can match--or top--City Brewing Company's World's Largest Six Pack in LaCrosse, WI.

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