BeerBorg

Catching up to modern thinking.

http://draftmag.com/several-states-make ... beer-laws/

Colorado and Oklahoma also recently passed bills that will allow beer above 3.2% ABW (4% ABV) to be sold in grocery stores. That leave only Kansas, Minnesota, and Utah.

If I'm lucky, that will make it unprofitable enough that they quit making the weak stuff and the remaining states will also change their laws.

I should not need to tell you how stupid laws can be bp. If no manufacturer actually produced the lower alcohol beer the law could just state that people were required to add water to their beer. A good excuse to kick in your door and measure the gravity of your beer.

I will just say that at least the original craft brewers could do a pretty decent job of making 3.2/4% versions of their beer that tastes good. When I had to visit UT back in the day, I used to go to one of the "private clubs" in happy valley (Provo) where they showed videos of battlebots and bikini kill kill type films, and the bad students from BYU went (they were very bad people as far as BYU was concerned LOL).

In any case, I could drink a lot of tasty beer and not feel bad.

So what am I saying? I don't know... I guess that 3.2/4% beer isn't as limited as people seem to think it is, if you are creative and use good ingredients. The Brits and other Europeans knew this a long time ago. Us 'Mericans forgot it, probably because we relate it to Macro beer, but 3.2/4% beer doesn't have to suck.

mashani wrote:I will just say that at least the original craft brewers could do a pretty decent job of making 3.2/4% versions of their beer that tastes good. When I had to visit UT back in the day, I used to go to one of the "private clubs" in happy valley (Provo) where they showed videos of battlebots and bikini kill kill type films, and the bad students from BYU went (they were very bad people as far as BYU was concerned LOL).

In any case, I could drink a lot of tasty beer and not feel bad.

So what am I saying? I don't know... I guess that 3.2/4% beer isn't as limited as people seem to think it is, if you are creative and use good ingredients. The Brits and other Europeans knew this a long time ago. Us 'Mericans forgot it, probably because we relate it to Macro beer, but 3.2/4% beer doesn't have to suck.

I could be wrong, but I think the private clubs could serve stronger beer. Or at least some of them could. There are a bunch of different types of licenses for clubs, restaurants, etc (I think that technically, there are no "bars" in Utah). Some allow strong beer, some don't. Some only allow beer if you order food (or state that you will be ordering food soon) and I think you have to be sitting in your chair when you place the order.

Having said that, you're right. Some of the breweries around here make really good 3.2 beer. In fact, in one of the articles that I read about the possibility that breweries may stop (or significantly curtail) making 3.2 beer, they talked to a local brewer who said that it could mean more business for them because they'd be happy to fill any void.

They tried to get rid of the "Zion Curtain" (a 7 foot high wall that protects children from being traumatized by seeing a drink poured) this past legislative session, but didn't get it done.

I'm sure that it was only 3.2/4% where I went, as I could drink an entire pitcher of stuff that I know I normally could not - while watching giant robots kill each other with flame throwers or repurposed farm grain thresher machinery eat other giant machines, and/or bikini babes kill each other and various men folk while driving cars through the desert (all on TV obviously LOL), and watch BYU students do bad things according to BYU code of conduct (live action there)... and still get up in the morning for a meeting LOL.

They didn't actually server strong drinks there. I'm not sure why it had to be a private club, it wasn't the same as the ski resort town types. I think maybe just because it was right in downtown happy valley.

The TGI Fridays in Provo back then had a bar - because it was built to corporate spec - but the bar was never open or stocked with anything. They would give you a beer if you ordered it, but look at you like you sprouted devil horns. If you ordered a second beer, they would just refuse to serve you it.

bpgreen wrote:
They tried to get rid of the "Zion Curtain" (a 7 foot high wall that protects children from being traumatized by seeing a drink poured) this past legislative session, but didn't get it done.

We still have this type of thing in Indiana too. Some restaurants use a wall, others a simple railing. "Separation" they say. We've had to wait in restaurants for the "family seating" when the bar was totally empty. Crazy law.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Tennessee has made great strides in recent years, mostly thanks to Yazoo's Linus Hall and the TN Craft Brewers Guild that he and a few other breweries founded in '11 and now includes 28 breweries.

First up was fixing the out of control beer taxes in the state. Though TN still is the highest beer tax state by a wide margin (Tennessee leads all other states’ beer tax rate by a 12 percent margin. In comparison to our neighbors, Arkansas’ tax per barrel rings up at $7.51 and Mississippi’s at $13.23, while Tennessee tops out at a whopping $37 per barrel.), the costing method has been changed by legislative efforts spearheaded by the Guild from a price-based tax to a volume based tax, In the old method, craft beers were taxed at a much higher cost because the tax was driven by the price of the beer, and thus there was a great disadvantage to craft breweries against the macros, who already have a bulk purchase advantage on cost of goods. By changing it to a by-volume tax, all beer is taxed at the same level regardless of cost. The legislation was a break-even... we are still the highest taxed state, but now the tax is not rapidly escalating as the cost of materials (grain, hops, etc) go up with inflation. Big win for the local craft breweries, and has been a boon to us as consumers, as we now get a lot more distro from other out-of-state breweries.

Next up was the fight for wine in grocery stores, which the guild appended a fight for raising the gravity limitations on beers that could be sold in groceries. The prior definition of "beer" was 5.0% ABW (6.2% ABV). Breweries could not produce anything higher than this without a distiller's licence (only Yazoo and Corsair had that), and anything higher from outside distribution or from local breweries had to be sold as a spirit in the liquor store (liquor stores conversely could not sell "beer"). Taprooms also could not sell their higher gravity options. When Yazoo did a beer release, they would have to give you a ticket at the brewery, and then you would have to go to the local liquor store to trade that ticket for a purchase of the beer. Crazy stuff. Though it was a compromise, the 8% ABW (10.1% ABV) restriction went into place at the beginning of '17, and now we can buy our SUE and our Two Hearted in the same place that we buy our "beer." Also, liquor stores can now sell all gravities of beer, as well as other things they couldn't sell before (soda, mixers, snacks, etc.). Also, we will get more distro from distributors and breweries that were reluctant to come here and not be able to offer their full line in one location, and also get expanded offerings from the breweries we already receive (for instance, Sierra Nevada did not distro their Beer Camp pack here since some of the offerings were above the "beer" definition). And most importantly, every brewery in TN can now produce beers up to 10.1%.

Still fights to wage, but big wins in the last few years here in TN...

MrBandGuy wrote:

bpgreen wrote:
They tried to get rid of the "Zion Curtain" (a 7 foot high wall that protects children from being traumatized by seeing a drink poured) this past legislative session, but didn't get it done.

We still have this type of thing in Indiana too. Some restaurants use a wall, others a simple railing. "Separation" they say. We've had to wait in restaurants for the "family seating" when the bar was totally empty. Crazy law.

That's cray-cray.