Utah is relaxing its well-known laws limiting alcohol content in beer. The change takes place on November 1, 2019.
State level alcohol laws are a hodge-podge (the link also has some details about sub-state level laws, which Utah does not have). So while Utah’s laws are different, they’re not that unusual if you travel around the country. For one thing, Utah never had package stores for beer, so in that sense we were more liberal than many states for quite a while.
Anyway, here’s the current system:
Beer is sold cold in grocery stores. It is limited to 3.2% ABW. Bars and restaurants that sell just beer sell 3.2 beer.
Beer is also sold warm in state (liquor) stores that close in the early evening and on Sundays. It’s ABW percent is unlimited. Bars and restaurants that sell liquor can sell beer with higher ABW.
The thing is, most localities measure alcohol by volume (ABV). But they’re not the same. Check out the conversions:
3.2% ABW = 4.0% ABV
4.0% ABW = 5.0% ABV
Most beer in most localities is marked as 5.0% ABV (the bold above). But beer in Utah in grocery stores has been limited to 3.2% ABW (the italics above).
The innumeracy is that people compare the bold with the italics and conclude that right now 10 beers in another state is roughly the same as 15 beers in Utah (10 x 5.0 ≈ 15 x 3.2).
But that’s not right. You have to make the units the same before you do the comparison. So 12 beers in other states are equivalent to 15 beers in Utah (12 x 5.0 ≈ 15 x 4.0 in ABV) or (12 x 4.0 ≈ 15 x 3.2 in ABW).
What Utah is changing to is a system in which alcohol content is measured by ABV (to make inter-state comparisons easier), and also one in which beer with higher alcohol is sold in grocery stores.
The bottom line is that it is a change, but not really a very big one, and definitely not as big as most people think.
I’m not much of a beer drinker, but there’s a bit of smoke and mirrors going on here. Most people are worried about the change in the number, but the bigger sociological change is the increased availability of beer with more alcohol that’s sold cold for immediate drinking. So drinking in Utah now requires less prior planning. I’m not sure how big a deal that is to most people.
N.B. I find it ironic that so many cases of innumeracy revolve around not getting the units right, rather than not dealing with the numbers properly.
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