I fail to understand the US (and esp UK) fascination and near dependence on alcohol. I don’t drink myself but certainly don’t mind people that do… but to not be able to handle a short time in Utah/Saudi etc (as seems to be common around here) is just boggling.
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It’s not ‘dependence’. Not for the most people, anyway. As CalMeacham says, it’s the cultural norm. Personally, I don’t understand the fanatical anti-alcohol attitudes exhibited by many American. Personally, I think that if alcohol were demystified in this country then fewer people would have problems with it.
I rarely drink, myself. Not for any ‘reason’; just that I don’t think about it that much. But I do like a beer with food, or with friends. Wine is good with a heavy meal. (And light ones, too, I suppose. But I like red wine.) Other sauce is good at parties. So it’s not that I have to drink, nor that I abuse alcohol, nor that I’m dependent upon it. It’s just that in certain situations I’d like a beer. And I don’t think it’s right in America – where we have freedom of religion – to be subjected to the anti-alcohol laws of a theocracy.
Private clubs were done away with last year (by the incredibly conservative Utah State Legislature) so now, anyone can go into any bar in the state (which were called private clubs) and drink to their little heart’s content, without worring about memberships, sponsors, or any of the other silly hoops that were in place for the past 40-odd years…
Utah still has some stupid liquor laws, but the one that really kills me is that I still can’t get a draught Pilsner Urquell or a Spaten Pils on tap (or any other “heavy” beer with more than 3.2% alcohol) even though the same beers are sold in bottles at several of my favorite neighborhood bars and are also sold in all the various state liquor stores.
Good draught beer is my favorite type of alcoholic beverage, and here at home it is all 3.2% watered-down kinder-brau, even though anyone can buy a 40 oz. bottle of Olde English 8% malt liquor for under 2 bucks at the state liquor store…
There is no consistancy, no rhyme or reason, and if you don’t like it, the local politicians will gladly tell you to get lost—Utah is THEIR state, (just like the mullahs would say in Afghanistan) and don’t you infidels fucking forget it.
Yeah, private clubs are definitely done away with. And thank goodness for that too, because they were a serious pain in the ass. Every time we went to a new club to see some band, we had to pay an extra $10 (or $5 or whatever) to be “guests.” There were a few concert venues that got around that by putting everybody with tickets on a guest list for free.
Now if we could just do away with the fucking liquor stores. Honestly, having to go blocks out of your way to buy a bottle of wine to cook with or a 5th of rum for a party is far, far more inconvenient than any of the laws governing how/what to drink in restaurants. But still, it’s not that difficult to get shitfaced in Utah. People do it all the time.
I just spent almost 4 hours in the SLC Airport. Thankfully, it seems that they are not part of the state for beer purposes. I had a Polygamy Porter, which seemed plenty strong and good, although I like porters much more than pale ales. They even had some bottled offerings around 9% or so but I opted for draught.
The 3.2% thing is all too common, especially in the Midwest. Colorado and Kansas are similar I think, along with a few more, unless things have changed.
I love living in the state with the most liberal alcohol laws. Border towns make a good business from Utahns, but even Utah is not the worst state.
The draught Polygamy Porter you had at the airport was indeed 3.2% ABV (which is actually about 4.0% alcohol by weight) just like ALL draught beer sold anywhere in the state of Utah…
As I have said before, there are many, many strong beers, ales and malt liquors widely sold in Utah (including a few Belgian Trappist brews that are around 18% alc.) in bottles or cans, but 3.2% tap beer is a statewide law.
I’m on the steering committee of a fairly big conference, and we had a meeting in SLC to look it over. The Convention and Visitors Bureau came over to talk to us, and showed us their standard come to SLC video. I’ve seen a lot of CVB videos, and none had more drinking than the one for SLC - they clearly wanted everyone to know that they weren’t dry.
I went to another conference there in 2008, and while someone did have to buy a membership in the private club he was allowed 8 guests or so, so it wasn’t much of an issue.
Utah isn’t the only place with odd rules. When I first went to Oklahoma City in the early 1980s the hotel signed you up for their private club. I think they’ve gotten rid of that. When we lived in NJ restaurant liquor licenses were rare and expensive, and lots of smaller places encouraged you to BYOB.
In Washington you can buy wine and beer in s supermarket, but spirits must be bought from a state store. They’re easy enough to find (google, phone book) but there are few of them in my area. And state taxes are something like 5000%. OK, not that bad; but it seems sauce costs at least half-again as much here as it did in California – where you could buy spirits anywhere.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. Once again people are trying to end the state’s monopoly on liquor sales. I hope it makes it to the ballot so I can vote for it.
I don’t know about Kansas, but I can assure you that there’s plenty of full-strength beer in Colorado. It used to be (and it still may be) that the only beer you could buy in grocery stores was 3.2, but any liquor store is going to have lots & lots of good strong beer.
And my experience in the Midwest is that they have lenient liquor laws compared to a lot of the Western and Eastern states. Pennsylvania is definitely the weirdest, with Utah coming in a close second. Wisconsin and Michigan have some the laxest liquor laws I’ve ever come across, and Minnesota & Illinois aren’t much stricter.
I have spent considerable time in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois (not Michigan) and while it is pretty easy to get a drink (or a 6 pack or a bottle) in each of those states, both Nevada and Louisiana are the leaders in ease of getting booze ANY time, night or day, at a bar, restaurant, gas station, corner grocery store, some random truck stop, etc. etc…
I am convinced that those two states are up there with the most liquor-friendly locales in the entire world, bar none.
I once flew from Salt Lake City (in November) to New Orleans.
Instant Culture Shock.
From subzero temperatures and cold to sultry, steamy, and hot.
From Striipers-can’t-go-beyond-a-bikini to Bourbon Street with totally nude dancers reflected out onto the street with a mirror
From Utah Liquor laws to selling drinks 36" from the street – and puttin your hurricane in a paper cup for you to drink as you walk back to your hotel.
Doesn’t Minnesota have rather weird laws, considering they’re a northern state? I can’t remember what my friend said, but something like grocery stores can’t sell liquor, or no alcohol sales on Sunday.
Supposedly, the drinkingest state is New Hampshire. I have no idea what their laws are like but I doubt they’re that strict.
I have flown from Salt Lake down to New Orleans 35+ times over the past 14 years (including flying down for a shot at Jazzfest just this past week) and even though I know New orleans as well as any major city in the world, I still can’t get over the differences between not only straightlaced Salt Lake City, but really between New Orleans and just about every other city worldwide that I have ever visited…
The liquor laws in Utah are quirky and still backwards, but the total absence of just about ANY liquor control in New Orleans (and Louisiana as a whole) is almost just as unique.
I moved from MD to WV almost a year ago. Maryland certainly had it’s own share of odd liquor laws, for instance, you could not buy beer or wine in any store except a liquor store.
But WV has much stranger liquor laws. You can buy beer, wine, ‘light’ alcoholic beverages (like Bartles and Jayme’s wine coolers) at just about any convenience or grocery store. Hard liquor/distilled spirits can only be sold at restaurants and specially licensed stores. But: on Sundays, you can buy hard liquor at a restaurant (say, a rum and Coke before dinner), but you cannot buy any alcohol at all before 1PM, and you cannot buy distilled spirits in a store.
I guess they figure that on Sunday morning, everyone should be in church; don’t understand at all about being able to buy beer/wine/light drinks, but not distilled spirits. It’s not like you can’t get just as hammered drinking the lower-alcohol-content stuff, you just have to drink more of it.*
Strange. Very, very strange.
*Not that I’m advocating, or looking forward to, getting hammered. It’s just that I don’t see the benefit of selling the lower-alcohol content stuff, but not the stronger stuff.
