0.08% It is illegal for you to drive if you have a BAC of: 0.08% or higher if you are over 21 years old.0.01% or higher if you are under 21 years old.0.01% or higher at any age if you are on DUI probation.
Contents
What is the highest legal blood alcohol level?
BAC Limits Across the United States – Across the United States, the legal limit is,08%. If your BAC is above this level, you are presumed intoxicated in every state. However, many states also have other limits in place as well. Specifically, most places have a “zero tolerance” level that applies to certain drivers.
How long will 4 beers show up on a breathalyzer?
How long after drinking can you pass a breathalyzer test? – Breathalyzers are the most common device used by law enforcement and other agencies to detect the recent consumption of alcohol. Because there is residual alcohol left in the body that is not fully metabolized, breathalyzer tests are able to detect alcohol in a person’s system for up to 24 hours after consumption.
Is 200 a high alcohol level?
2.2 Acute Intoxication – As blood alcohol levels increase in humans, the impact of alcohol on cognitive abilities, psychomotor performance, and vital physiologic functions increases ( Naranjo and Bremner, 1993, Table 2 ). Table 2, Clinical Manifestations of Blood Alcohol Concentration
Blood Alcohol Level mg% | Clinical Manifestations |
---|---|
20–99 | Loss of muscular coordination Changes in mood, personality, and behavior |
100–99 | Neurologic impairment with prolonged reaction time, ataxia, incoordination, and mental impairment |
200–299 | Very obvious intoxication, except in those with marked tolerance nausea, vomiting, marl-zed ataxia |
300–399 | Hypothermia, severe dysarthria, amnesia, Stage 1 anesthesia |
400–799 | Onset of alcoholic coma, with precise level depending on degree of tolerance Progressive obtundation, decreases in respiration, blood pressure and body temperature Urinary incontinence or retention, reflexes markedly decreased or absent |
600–800 | Often fatal because of loss of airway protective reflexes from airway obstruction by flaccid tongue, from pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents, or from respiratory arrest from profound central nervous system obstruction |
Source: Reproduced with permission ( Mayo-Smith, 2009 ) With chronic use, tolerance to the effects of alcohol develops, so the functional impact of a specific amount of alcohol is dependent on a number of factors including degree of tolerance, rate of intake, body weight, percentage of fat and gender.
- Alcohol intoxication initially impacts the frontal lobe region of the brain, causing disinhibition, impaired judgment, and cognitive and problem-solving difficulties.
- At blood alcohol concentrations between 20 mg% and 99 mg%, along with increasing mood and behavioral changes, the effects of alcohol on the cerebellum can cause motor-coordination problems.
With blood alcohol levels of 100–199 mg%, there is neurologic impairment with prolonged reaction time, ataxia, and incoordination. Blood alcohol levels of 200–399 mg% are associated with nausea, vomiting, marked ataxia and hypothermia. Between 400 mg% and 799 mg% blood alcohol level, the onset of alcohol coma can occur.
- Serum levels of alcohol between 600 mg% and 800 mg% are often fatal.
- Progressive obtundation develops with decreases in blood pressure, respiration, and body temperature.
- Death may be caused by the loss of protective airway reflexes, aspiration of gastric contents or respiratory/cardiac arrest through depressant effects of alcohol on the medulla oblongata and the pons ( Table 2, and Mayo-Smith, 2009 ).
Severely intoxicated individuals may require admission to the hospital for management in specialized units with close monitoring and respiratory support. In individuals with coma, alternative causes must always be investigated, such as head injury, other drug use, hypoglycemia, or meningitis.
Is 0.08 actually drunk?
When your blood alcohol content (BAC) is 0.08% or higher, you’re considered legally impaired in the U.S.
How quickly does BAC drop?
It does not fall as fast as people assume There are a lot of factors that contribute to how fast it rises, such as your weight and your gender, but most people are going to see their BAC drop at roughly the same rate. This rate is 0.015 % per hour, or very close to that standard.
Is 500 alcohol level high?
Physiological effects of various blood alcohol levels – Blood alcohol depends on many factors including number of drinks, gender (females show higher blood alcohol than males for consuming same amounts of alcohol when body weights are comparable), and body weight.
Moreover, peak blood alcohol level is lower if alcohol is consumed with food and if alcohol is sipped instead of consumed rapidly. The presence of food not only reduces blood alcohol level but also stimulates its elimination through the liver. Alcohol is first metabolized to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and then by aldehyde dehydrogenase into acetate.
Acetate finally breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. For higher alcohol consumption, liver CYP2E1 plays a role in alcohol metabolism. Substantial research has established that the effect of alcohol on the human depends on the blood alcohol concentration.
- At a very low blood alcohol level people usually feel relaxation and mild euphoria and some loss of inhibition or shyness.
- However, at blood alcohol levels that exceed the legal limit for driving in United States, significant impairment of motor skills may occur.
- At a blood alcohol level of 0.3% and higher, complete loss of consciousness may occur and a blood alcohol level of 0.5% and higher may even cause death ( Table 1.2 ).
Drinking excessive alcohol in one occasion may cause alcohol poisoning which if not treated promptly may be fatal. Celik et al. reported that postmortem blood alcohol levels ranged from 136 to 608 mg/dL in 39 individuals who died due to alcohol overdose.
Blood alcohol level | Physiological effect |
---|---|
0.01–0.04% (10–40 mg/dL) | Mild euphoria, relaxation, and increased social interactions. |
0.05–0.07% (50–70 mg/dL) | Euphoria with loss of inhibition making a person more friendly and talkative. Some impairments of motor skills may take place in some individuals, and as a result, in some countries, e.g., Germany, the legal limit of driving is 0.05%. |
0.08% (80 mg/dL) | Legal limit of driving in United States. Some impairment of driving skills may be present in some individuals. |
0.08–0.12% (80–120 mg/dL) | Moderate impairment to significant impairment of driving skills depending on drinking habits. Emotional swings and depression may be observed in some individuals. |
0.12–0.15% (120–150 mg/dL) | Motor function, speech, and judgement are all severely affected at this height of blood alcohol. Staggering, and slurred speech, may be observed. Severe impairment of driving skills. |
0.15–0.2% (150–200 mg/dL) | This is the blood alcohol level where a person appears drunk and may have severe visual impairment. |
0.2–0.3% (200–300 mg/dL) | Vomiting, incontinence, symptoms of alcohol intoxication. |
0.3–0.4% (300–400 mg/dL) | Signs of severe alcohol intoxication and a person may not be able to move without the help of another person. Stupor, blackout, and total loss of consciousness may also happen. |
0.4–0.5% (400–500 mg/dL) | Potentially fatal and a person may be comatose. |
Above 0.5% (500 mg/dL) | Highly dangerous/fatal blood alcohol level. |
Impairment of motor skills may occur at blood alcohol levels lower than 0.08%. Phillips and Brewer commented that accident severity increases when the driver is merely “buzzed” compared to sober drivers because buzzed drivers are significantly more likely to speed, and the greater the blood alcohol, the greater the speed as well as the severity of the accident.
Moreover, a buzzed driver may not put the seatbelt on properly. Usually alcohol-related traffic accidents are more likely to take place on weekends, in the months of June–August, and from 8 pm to 4 am, Falleti et al. demonstrated that cognitive impairment associated with 0.05% blood alcohol is similar to staying awake for 24 h,
Moreover, many industrialized countries such as Austria, France, Germany, and Italy have set legal limit of driving at 0.05%. Although the legal limit of driving in Canada is 0.08%, in some Canadian provinces, 0.05% blood alcohol is considered as the “warning range” limit at which officers may suspend a driver’s license for 1–7 days.
The National Transportation Safety Board in 2014 recommended lowering the legal limit of driving in the United States to 0.05%, but it is not adopted as the law. Scientific research has shown that even at 0.05% blood alcohol virtually all drivers are impaired regarding at least some driving practices,
For avoiding driving while intoxicated in United States, consumption of alcohol with food is highly recommended. For men, up to 2 standard drinks consumed with food in a 2 h period (1 drink per hour) and for women up to 1 drink with food consumed in a 2 h period should produce blood alcohol levels below 0.08%.
Is 3.5 A high alcohol level?
Physiological effects of various blood alcohol levels – Blood alcohol depends on many factors including number of drinks, gender (females show higher blood alcohol than males for consuming same amounts of alcohol when body weights are comparable), and body weight.
- Moreover, peak blood alcohol level is lower if alcohol is consumed with food and if alcohol is sipped instead of consumed rapidly.
- The presence of food not only reduces blood alcohol level but also stimulates its elimination through the liver.
- Alcohol is first metabolized to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and then by aldehyde dehydrogenase into acetate.
Acetate finally breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. For higher alcohol consumption, liver CYP2E1 plays a role in alcohol metabolism. Substantial research has established that the effect of alcohol on the human depends on the blood alcohol concentration.
- At a very low blood alcohol level people usually feel relaxation and mild euphoria and some loss of inhibition or shyness.
- However, at blood alcohol levels that exceed the legal limit for driving in United States, significant impairment of motor skills may occur.
- At a blood alcohol level of 0.3% and higher, complete loss of consciousness may occur and a blood alcohol level of 0.5% and higher may even cause death ( Table 1.2 ).
Drinking excessive alcohol in one occasion may cause alcohol poisoning which if not treated promptly may be fatal. Celik et al. reported that postmortem blood alcohol levels ranged from 136 to 608 mg/dL in 39 individuals who died due to alcohol overdose.
Blood alcohol level | Physiological effect |
---|---|
0.01–0.04% (10–40 mg/dL) | Mild euphoria, relaxation, and increased social interactions. |
0.05–0.07% (50–70 mg/dL) | Euphoria with loss of inhibition making a person more friendly and talkative. Some impairments of motor skills may take place in some individuals, and as a result, in some countries, e.g., Germany, the legal limit of driving is 0.05%. |
0.08% (80 mg/dL) | Legal limit of driving in United States. Some impairment of driving skills may be present in some individuals. |
0.08–0.12% (80–120 mg/dL) | Moderate impairment to significant impairment of driving skills depending on drinking habits. Emotional swings and depression may be observed in some individuals. |
0.12–0.15% (120–150 mg/dL) | Motor function, speech, and judgement are all severely affected at this height of blood alcohol. Staggering, and slurred speech, may be observed. Severe impairment of driving skills. |
0.15–0.2% (150–200 mg/dL) | This is the blood alcohol level where a person appears drunk and may have severe visual impairment. |
0.2–0.3% (200–300 mg/dL) | Vomiting, incontinence, symptoms of alcohol intoxication. |
0.3–0.4% (300–400 mg/dL) | Signs of severe alcohol intoxication and a person may not be able to move without the help of another person. Stupor, blackout, and total loss of consciousness may also happen. |
0.4–0.5% (400–500 mg/dL) | Potentially fatal and a person may be comatose. |
Above 0.5% (500 mg/dL) | Highly dangerous/fatal blood alcohol level. |
Impairment of motor skills may occur at blood alcohol levels lower than 0.08%. Phillips and Brewer commented that accident severity increases when the driver is merely “buzzed” compared to sober drivers because buzzed drivers are significantly more likely to speed, and the greater the blood alcohol, the greater the speed as well as the severity of the accident.
- Moreover, a buzzed driver may not put the seatbelt on properly.
- Usually alcohol-related traffic accidents are more likely to take place on weekends, in the months of June–August, and from 8 pm to 4 am,
- Falleti et al.
- Demonstrated that cognitive impairment associated with 0.05% blood alcohol is similar to staying awake for 24 h,
Moreover, many industrialized countries such as Austria, France, Germany, and Italy have set legal limit of driving at 0.05%. Although the legal limit of driving in Canada is 0.08%, in some Canadian provinces, 0.05% blood alcohol is considered as the “warning range” limit at which officers may suspend a driver’s license for 1–7 days.
- The National Transportation Safety Board in 2014 recommended lowering the legal limit of driving in the United States to 0.05%, but it is not adopted as the law.
- Scientific research has shown that even at 0.05% blood alcohol virtually all drivers are impaired regarding at least some driving practices,
For avoiding driving while intoxicated in United States, consumption of alcohol with food is highly recommended. For men, up to 2 standard drinks consumed with food in a 2 h period (1 drink per hour) and for women up to 1 drink with food consumed in a 2 h period should produce blood alcohol levels below 0.08%.
Does drinking water lower BAC?
Factors that impact BAC – Number of standard drinks and rate of consumption
BAC will rise relative to the number of drinks consumed and how quickly they are consumed.
Body size and composition
Body size determines the amount of space that alcohol has to diffuse throughout the body. In general, a person with a larger build who drinks the same as a person with a smaller build will have a lower BAC due to the amount of space alcohol has to distribute through. Alcohol diffuses more into muscle than fat because muscle tissue has a large amount of blood that flows through it. This means that an individual’s muscle to body fat ratio will impact their BAC, as it correlates to the amount of blood available for alcohol to enter. For example, someone with a higher percentage of body fat will experience a more rapid increase in BAC, as alcohol will become more concentrated in the blood of their muscle tissue.
Testosterone and estrogen levels
People with higher levels of testosterone generally have more muscle mass and less body fat than people with higher levels of estrogen. Muscle contains more blood than body fat. The larger volume of blood in those with greater muscle mass allows alcohol to dilute more through the bloodstream and BAC to remain lower. People with higher levels of testosterone are composed of approximately 55-65% water, whereas people with higher levels of estrogen are composed of about 45-55% water. Alcohol becomes more diluted in bodies with greater volumes of water, resulting in lower BAC levels for people with higher levels of testosterone as compared to those with higher levels of estrogen. Individuals with higher levels of testosterone have higher levels of alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that helps break down alcohol. This means that individuals with higher levels of testosterone can more efficiently break down alcohol as compared to individuals with higher levels of estrogen, who have more alcohol enter their bloodstream, resulting in higher BAC levels. Research has found that due to changes in hormone levels, individuals who have periods experience slower alcohol metabolism and higher levels of intoxication in the week leading up to their period. Oral contraceptives and other medications with estrogen also slow the rate at which individuals process alcohol.
Additional drugs or medications
Other drugs and medications, even those prescribed to you, can have adverse effects and unpredictable interactions with alcohol. It is important to ask your doctor if any medications you might be taking have harmful effects when taken with alcohol.
Amount of food consumed
Food present in the stomach causes the alcohol to move down into the small intestine slower than it would on an empty stomach. While it’s a common myth that food absorbs alcohol like a sponge, it actually causes a “traffic jam” in the body, making the processing of alcohol take longer. This reduces the risk of a rapidly rising BAC level.
Emotional state, mood and level of fatigue
Alcohol has a more pronounced effect on those who may be fatigued or under stress. Since alcohol is a depressant, someone who is depressed may experience heightened signs of depression upon drinking.
Menstrual cycle
Research has found that due to changes in hormone levels, individuals who have periods experience slower alcohol metabolism and higher levels of intoxication in the week leading up to their period.
Type of beverage or mixer
Fruit juices slow down the processing of alcohol because the sugar requires digestion, resulting in a slower rise in BAC. On the other hand, carbonated mixers or drinks can cause BAC to rise more rapidly because the carbonation speeds up absorption.
It is important to note that common strategies used to “sober up,” such as taking a cold shower, sleeping, drinking water and consuming caffeine, do not work to lower BAC. The only thing that can help alcohol leave your bloodstream is time.
What does 1.3 standard drinks mean?
UNDERSTANDING THAT LABEL ON YOUR DRINK – WHAT DOES 1.3 STDS REALLY MEAN? – While most kiwis have heard about standard drinks, very few of us can explain what they are or why they matter. So, in this article we want to help you become one of the experts when it comes to reading and understanding the standard drinks label on your favourite drink. It is telling you how long it is going to take your body to process (or metabolize if you want the technical term) the alcohol that is the bottle or can you’re holding. For instance, this label on a bottle of beer says 1.3 standard drinks, that means it will take you 1.3 hours to process the alcohol in that one bottle, a bottle of Sav Blanc at a BYO dinner will be more like 7.4 hours if you drink it alone! (FYI this is more than 70% of the weekly recommended number of drinks for a female and 50% for a male in 1 bottle – you can read more about these low risk drinking guidelines here ) But let’s go back a few steps and start with some simple facts that can help you drink smarter:
Is 3.2 percent of alcohol a lot?
Weak but powerful: The legacy of 3.2 percent beer endures Get your twice-weekly fix of features, commentary, and insight from the frontlines of American food. by 07.12.2019, 2:30pm BreakingTheWalls / iStock BreakingTheWalls / iStock This Depression-era relic will disappear by the end of year. How has it lasted this long, and will anyone miss it when it’s gone? By the end of this year, there will be precisely one state left—Minnesota—in which an unpopular, Depression-era drink is the standard grocery store option.
- That beverage is 3.2 percent beer, or “three-two” beer, which has survived due to strange quirks of history and law, monopolistic interests, and general bureaucratic apathy.
- Millions of people drink it.
- Nobody, as far as I can tell, likes it.
- State to state, the laws which birthed three-two beer vary.
- In states like Colorado, 3.2 laws restricted certain retailers (like grocery stores) from selling any stronger beer.
Sometimes, as in Oklahoma and Utah, that severely restricted the ability of people to find normal-strength beer, due to a lack of approved liquor stores. In not-too-distant history, 3.2 beer was legal for 18-year-olds to drink in some states. But in general, only apathy and business pressures have kept 3.2 percent beer in stores; people generally hate it, and hate the laws that birthed it.
- In terms of weight, Bud Light is a 3.2 percent beer Alcohol in 2019, as it has been for the past half-century, is measured in terms of ABV, or alcohol by volume.
- But because 3.2 percent beer is an odd relic of the past, it is not measured in this way; 3.2 actually means the percentage of alcohol by weight.
If we’re talking in terms of ABV, which modern drinkers understand much better, 3.2 percent beer is really 4.0 percent beer. That’s not too different from the percentage of alcohol by weight in many “full” beers; Amstel Light clocks in at 4.1 percent, and Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Bud Light are all at 4.2 percent.
And yet, for over 80 years (and counting, in Minnesota), if you wanted to sell beer in certain states, you’d have to make it weaker. This is exactly the kind of bizarre law that’s so fun to examine. The end product is hardly different from unrestricted versions, yet it’s widespread and pernicious enough to have had huge effects on the way people live and drink.
And it all comes back to Prohibition. The 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act was the first real legislation to establish any oversight on what goes into bottles of liquor; at that point, the idea of labeling alcohol content on a beer was totally unknown. It was only with the ratification of the 18th Amendment, establishing Prohibition, that the country began to look seriously at how to treat alcohol as a public health concern, and as a potentially dangerous product.
Schlitz once shined a bunch of ultraviolet light on its beer and marketed is as “Sunshine Vitamin D Beer.” “There was definitely a different perception of what it meant to drink beer back then,” says Claire White, educational programs director at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Organized crime played a major role in the environment that led to 3.2 percent beer, so she knows her stuff.) Low-point beers—meaning, low alcohol content—had a long tradition in parts of Europe.
Czech beer culture has always included light beers, some as low as 3 percent alcohol by volume. The Czechs had strict categorization of beers reaching as far back as the 19th century, and what we’d now call “session” beers—with alcohol levels below 5 percent—were common.
- The major American breweries, including Budweiser, Pabst, and Schlitz, looked to Czech and German beer styles, many of which were light pilsners and lagers.
- These breweries sometimes tried to market their beers as health tonics; Schlitz once shined a bunch of ultraviolet light on its beer and marketed it as “Sunshine Vitamin D Beer.” During the ramp up to Prohibition, the view of beer as being not really alcoholic in nature was pervasive; many states, White says, assumed that beer wouldn’t be included in the 18th Amendment at all, and were surprised when it banned all alcoholic beverages above 0.5 percent.
Following the early success and bootlegging-fueled breakdown of Prohibition, presidential candidates and other politicians running in the 1932 races were divided along “wet” and “dry” lines. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a wet candidate, campaigning on a by-then-popular platform to end Prohibition, start taxing alcohol, and make some cash for the country.
- He won handily—losing only six states—and his first order of business was to get rid of Prohibition.
- But overturning a constitutional amendment is no easy task, and FDR wanted to make alcohol great again (and legal) as soon as possible.
- Within two months, he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law.
- The act immediately allowed the sale of beer, but at an extremely specific alcohol content: 3.2 percent by weight.
??? In the 1930s, the science of exactly what percentage of alcohol in a beverage is enough to make you drunk was extremely underdeveloped. At the time, scientists simply had people drink a lot of beer and then observed them before declaring whether they were intoxicated or not.
The challenge of walking in a straight line was viewed as a final arbiter of drunkenness (inspiration for future traffic stops), and scientists insisted that certain low percentages of ABV were simply not intoxicating at all. Congress brought scientists in to explain what a good alcohol percentage for the new law might be.
A Yale physiologist named Yandell Henderson, who had previously done most of his work on toxic gases, became the go-to guy for educating lawmakers—and the public—about how much alcohol would be enough to get you intoxicated. Henderson knew little about alcohol when he first started; he was not up to date on the newest studies, he misrepresented conclusions, and he confidently put forth guesswork.
- The earliest percentage of alcohol permitted for low-point beer was set at 2.75 percent by weight.
- Most of the research around that time used that number as a baseline.
- But the 3.2 percent number came from brewers, who, in 1933, hired a University of Chicago physiologist named Anton Carlson to study it.
It’s not entirely clear where the 3.2 number came from. Most experts believe that brewers settled on that amount because it was roughly what their lighter beers had contained before Prohibition. In any case, Carlson declared 3.2 percent beer “non-intoxicating” (his threshold for intoxication was extremely high, requiring the inability to walk or think straight), and the Cullen-Harrison Act followed.
It’s not entirely clear where exactly the 3.2 number came from. Because there was such a long and public debate about precise alcohol contents, the conclusion—that 3.2 percent beer is basically safe and won’t make you woozy—was made concrete in the minds of citizens and lawmakers. The public pretty much forgot about it within a generation, especially because the Cullen-Harrison Act existed on the books only until the 21st Amendment passed nine months later.
But laws do not forget so quickly. ??? Many states have highly specific laws restricting the sale of alcohol on their books. In Indiana, convenience stores can sell beer, but that beer cannot be chilled. Happy Hour was illegal in Massachusetts until 2015.
Many states, including Delaware, Rhode Island, and North Dakota, have simply banned sales of alcohol in grocery stores entirely. Pennsylvania had that same law until recently, but now if your grocery store has two separate check-out lines, it’s allowed. Then there are the states that hung on to that 3.2 percent rule.
The Drinking Age Act of 1984, steamrolled through Congress by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, made the official nationwide drinking age 21. (Colorado didn’t accept the law for three years; other states fought it as well.) Before that, states were allowed to set the drinking age as they saw fit.
- Colorado, like a couple of other states, used 3.2 percent beer as a sort of gateway booze for people aged 18, 19, and 20.
- Bars and clubs sprung up all around the state to serve copious amounts of weak beer to high schoolers, college underclassmen, and military personnel in training.
- Low-point beers have remained limp but effective tools in the toolbox of some state legislators, including in Colorado.
After Prohibition fully ended, you’d have thought, well, no need for this goofy beer anymore. But it hung on as a barely legal drink for the barely legal-aged drinker. After 1987, when Colorado grudgingly raised its drinking age to 21, you’d have thought it was sure to die.
But lawmakers kept it, and used it as a cudgel against corporations. Kansas, incredibly enough, has still not technically ratified the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition. Up until 2016, Colorado supermarkets, convenience stores, and big-box stores like Walmart—most of which were chains—were allowed to sell only 3.2 percent beer.
This was, effectively, a way to keep big corporations from becoming major players in the alcohol retail game. “On average, was probably 7 percent of sales, and most of that was in rural areas and tourist areas, where people didn’t know they were buying 3.2 beer, frankly,” says Steve Findley, executive director of the Colorado Beer Distributors Association.
Often, states with 3.2 percent beer laws have other restrictions aimed at controlling the flow of alcohol. Utah is a control state, meaning you can get other, stronger alcoholic beverages only in state-controlled stores, which are called, appropriately, State Liquor Stores. Kansas, incredibly enough, has still not technically ratified the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition; the state still has dry counties, and maintains a hefty tax on all alcohol products.
But not Colorado, where 3.2 percent beer wasn’t a tool to stop people from getting drunk. It was a tool to help them get drunk more tastefully—or at least less intensely. ??? Colorado may have had blue laws, which restrict alcohol purchases on Sundays, and 3.2 percent beer in 7-Elevens, but the state has been, for generations, incredibly supportive of the alcohol industry.
- Licenses to sell liquor in the state are extremely cheap, at only $500, and unlimited in number.
- But until 2016, each holder of a liquor license could operate only a single store.
- Today, it’s five stores—still low.) “The laws were pretty generous as far as getting a liquor store,” says Findley.
- There might even have been too many liquor stores.” Coloradans were never that mad about the whole 3.2 percent beer thing because there was no shortage of places at which to buy stronger, craftier beer—specifically at thousands upon thousands of smaller, independent retailers, and in the restaurants and bars that sold those products.
You’re likely aware of the state’s spike in craft-beer production, microbreweries, and the weirder brews Colorado has come to be known for. If you’re a brewer who wants to make a 13 percent sour beer with overtones of old shoe, for instance, Colorado is the state for you.
- Getting into a retailer is far easier when you’re just convincing one liquor store owner, rather than a chain like BevMo, Walmart, or Safeway.
- They can really cater to who their customers are, a lot easier than you could as a chain,” says Findley.
- New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado So 3.2 percent beer was a low-risk bone to throw to big chain retailers, a way to say: “Get out of the alcohol business, we like our independent stores.” It placated those chains for decades, allowing independent stores and small breweries to proliferate.
That was not the case in other states. Until late 2018, Oklahomans could get higher-than-3.2-percent beer only in liquor stores, but those stores were also highly regulated and far less common than, say, Walmart. “People would drive to Texas to get ‘strong beer,’ which meant Budweiser in excess of 3.2 percent, which really wasn’t much higher,” says Oklahoma brewery director Sean Mossman.
- But in general, people drank three-two.
- People in Oklahoma, they wanted beer.
- So if the only beer that was available in grocery and convenience stores were the macro brands, that’s what they bought and that’s what they drank,” he says.
- Oklahoma, unlike Colorado, almost completely missed out on the craft-beer boom.
“The reality is, Oklahoma ranked 49th in the country in craft breweries per capita, and that has almost everything to do with a couple of restrictive laws,” says Mossman. His company tried to make a few 3.2 beers that could legally be sold in Walmarts, grocery stores, and convenience stores, but they were never thrilled with them, and the company stopped making them as soon as they could.
- IPAs are 30 percent of all craft beers, and our IPA is our flagship, and there was just no way we were going to get a full-flavored IPA down around 4 percent,” he says.
- In Oklahoma, the big brewers to stop making 3.2 percent beer entirely; agreeing with the general public that it was a silly law which needed to be trashed.
In Colorado, Findley conducted regular polling that showed about three-quarters of the population was perfectly satisfied with Colorado’s alcohol laws. The big brewers didn’t really mind; they could still sell their macro brews in thousands of liquor stores in the state, and if they got some ancillary sales from their 3.2 percent beer, fine, sure, whatever.
- Three-two beer has been a salve to teenagers, a punishment to corporations, a tool in the eternal struggle between wanting alcohol and knowing that it’s probably bad for society as a whole.
- But eventually, the lobby of supermarkets, convenience stores, and big box stores prevailed.
- Starting in 1990, according to a great history in Denver’s alt-weekly, the legion of major retailers formed a group called the Coalition for Consumer Choice.
They pushed hard, for decades, to end the 3.2 percent law, only to run repeatedly into a population that was pretty happy with the way things were. Finally, two bills were passed, one in 2016 allowing supermarkets and big-box stores to sell beer with higher than a 3.2 percentage, and one in 2018 for convenience-store chains.
Three-two beer died, and while the vast majority of Coloradans may not care about that loss specifically, they do care about the erosion of their alcohol culture. Those ubiquitous mom-and-pop liquor stores? sales losses of as much as 30 percent. Many will close, unable to compete in a free market that was artificially neutered by the presence of 3.2 percent beer for so long.
Chains may end up being a mutating force in the indie beer world. Will the tiny craft- and micro-brewers have a chance to sell their stuff in local King Soopers chain supermarkets, the same way they did with an independently owned corner liquor store? “That’s one of those things that remains to be seen,” says Findley.
With 3.2 beer laws leaving Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma, by 2020, the only state left with a law on the books regarding this strangest of beers will be Minnesota. A recent liquor omnibus bill relaxed certain elements of Minnesota’s liquor laws, like stretching Sunday selling hours. And yet the law restricting grocery stores to selling 3.2 percent beer remains on the books.
Minnesota is the last holdout. Three-two beer has been a salve to teenagers, a punishment to corporations, a tool in the eternal struggle between wanting alcohol and knowing that it’s probably bad for society as a whole. It is weak only in its alcohol content.
In its enduring political (and cultural) legacy, it’s full-strength. Also tagged Get a weekly dish of features, commentary and insight from the food movement’s front lines. By using The Counter (“us” and “we”) website or any of its Content (as defined in Section 9 below) and features (collectively, “Services”), you agree to the terms and conditions of use below and such other requirements that we inform you of (collectively, “Terms”).
: Weak but powerful: The legacy of 3.2 percent beer endures