Utah lawmakers reach tentative compromise on stronger beer sales



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Photo: Andrew Burton (Getty Images)

It was a long and strange trip to find stronger beer in Utah's stores. The Beehive State – yeah – has some of the most stringent beer laws in the country, requiring beer sold in grocery stores and convenience stores to be below 3.2% by weight of alcohol, or about 4% % in volume. This legislative session has been marked by real progress in raising this threshold, not without the opposition of groups ranging from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the guild of state brewers. The church opposed it for moral reasons, while the guild opposed any limitation of the alcohol content. Strange friends, no? However, these disparate groups may have finally reached a consensus, with Utah House having returned a compromise bill to the state Senate, which could vote it today.

Salt Lake Tribune reports that the compromise bill would raise the ceiling of alcohol by weight to 4%, and not the 5% that some hoped for. This increase of about 5% ABV would cover most of the beers consumed in the rest of the country, such as Coors Banquet (5% ABV), Coors Light (4.2% ABV), Budweiser (5% ABV). ), Miller Lite (4.2 percent ABV) and Bud Light (4.2 percent ABV), but would still exclude a lot of craft beers and more resistant macro beers like Bud Light Platinum.

This bill represents a compromise between the 5% of alcohol supporters and critics who almost killed the bill in the House last week. Even if the legislation in force pbades the Senate and is signed by the governor, Utah would still have some of the country's strictest beer laws.

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