Utah Liquor Laws

If your visiting Utah and are curious about the states liquor laws or live here and are still confused here's a brief explanation of the laws to help you navigate the new Adult friendly Utah.

These new laws go into effect as of July 1st 2009.

Bars: Offer a full range of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol per drink is limited to 1.5 oz of primary alcohol per drink. Beers of all types and strengths are available as well as wine. No membership required, however I.D. is required if you appear to be younger than 35 years of age. No smoking allowed by state law.

Taverns: Offer only beer. Beer must contain no more than 4.0% Alcohol by Volume.

Restaurants: Alcoholic beverages can be ordered with dinner or in the restaurants bar area. The purchase of a food item is required in the bar area, usually the cheapest thing on the menu. Chips & Salsa etc. No children allowed in the bar area.

Brew Pubs: Offer craft beers made in house. There is no limit to strength of beer that they can sell in bottles, as long as they have the proper licence. Beer on draft is limited to 4.0% ABV. Some brew pubs will also have a bar licence to sell liquor and wine.

Beer: Beer containing an alcohol content of 4.0% and below can be purchased at convenience & Grocery stores. As well as bars, taverns, private clubs, restaurants & brew pubs. Beer Above 4.0% can only be purchased at Liquor stores, bars, restaurants, private clubs & Brewpubs with the proper licencing. There is no set limit to the amount of alcohol a beer can contain in Utah. Keg's are not available for purchase by the public and the brewing of beer and wine at home for personal consumption is legal.

Wine: Is available for purchase only at Wineries, liquor stores, state run wine stores, restaurants, bars and brew pubs with the proper licence. Utah's state wine stores have one of the best wine selections in the country.

Liquor: Is available for purchase only at Distilleries, Liquor Stores, Bars, Restaurants and Brewpubs with the proper licence.

State Liquor stores are closed on Sundays. But alcoholic drinks are available at bars on Sunday and 4.0% beer is available at convenience and grocery stores on Sunday.

Note: Bars are the former "Private Clubs". Even though the private club system has gone away some establishments have opted to stay private. Meaning you will need to be a member to enter. This mostly affect golf courses, fraternal organization and the like. Some Bars have opted to remain "private" and will require memberships. These will be a very small minority as far as Bars go.

Utah's Liquor Laws are now the closest they've been to normal in quite some time. Because Utah's Liquor laws have the misfortune of being written by people who don't imbibe (not all but most). The laws tend to be in a state of constant change. Which often adds to confusion. These are the basics. I'm not going to get into all the little technicalities that are out there because they affect a relative minority of drinker. Cheers!

The End of an Era!!! Thank God.

Most of you have probably heard that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced a deal Monday that would make the most sweeping changes in decades to Utah's liquor laws, including an end to the state's one-of-a-kind private-club law.

The liquor-reform package was hammered out during weeks of intense negotiations with the governor's staff, legislators and representatives of the hospitality and restaurant industries and the LDS Church.

The compromise legislation would do away with private clubs, replacing them with a scanner verifying the validity of the identification presented by anyone who appears under age 35. Data would be stored on-site for a week. There would be no centralized law-enforcement database

For restaurants that serve alcohol, the bill would do away with the so-called "Zion Curtain," a glass barrier that servers must walk around to distribute drinks to patrons. Under the proposed changes, bartenders would now be able to pass a drink to a patron across the bar.

New restaurants would need a separate area for mixing drinks, away from the view of children. Existing restaurants would be grandfathered, but might qualify for $30,000 in assistance if they chose to renovate to conceal the mixing of drinks.

These demands on new restaurants will create situations in which they are treated differently than existing establishments and might discourage eateries from locating in the state.

Part of the liquor-reform package also would toughen penalties for drunken driving: Repeat offenders could forfeit their vehicles; underage drunken drivers could lose their licenses; and bar owners could face more legal liability if drunken patrons are involved in accidents.

The bill is expected to move quickly through the Legislature, starting in the Senate. If it passes and is signed by the governor, the private-club provisions would kick in July 1; the restaurant changes would take effect May.

Other Liquor related legislation to pass, the tacky and labor intensive D.A.B.C. tax stickers are going away. This will save the state over one million bucks a year. Maybe the money could go into purchasing beer coolers for liquor stores. Hint-hint...

As of this morning, there is no change on the status of HB 349 "the heavy beer on draft bill".

And of course the Utah Homebrew Bill. No longer will you feel like a deviant when making your next batch of "Bourbon Barrel aged-Triple-Imperial-Dry Hopped-Dopple IPA with Brettomyces"!

Well... maybe a little. Cheers!

Mr. Liquor

There's a great article in the current issue of City Weekly called Mr. Liquor. It's a well done profile on former DABC Chairman Kenneth Wynn, that gives a "behind the scenes" look into the the highs and lows of the last 30 years in the creation of Utah's crazy liquor laws and the people who oversee them.

Trust, Yet Verify

If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Right? I mean at least that's what most of us have been taught. Trust yet verify. That's my position on the current possibility of abolishing the state of Utah's private club system. Even though the plan has the full support of Utah's LDS Governor and the states liquor-control commissioners agreed (by a 3-1 vote) to gather information on the proposed club elimination I still have a bad feeling the rug will be pulled from under us.

The Utah Hospitality Association would like to see the state's 77 taverns - which can only serve beer up to 4.0% - to be allowed to stock heavier beers(above 4.0%), wines and distilled spirits, moving bars into the "private club" category. Thus abolishing membership fees. Under this proposal, everything would operate in a similar fashion to Utah's airport lounges, where alcoholic beverages are sold with or without food, at a bar or table.

It all sounds fine and dandy, 'till you find out that LDS Church has made no comment as of yet on the possible abolishment of private clubs. In reality no such proposal can proceed with out their backing and it would be political suicide to advance without they're input. "The church is reserving comment until it sees a final draft of the law." said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter Wednesday in the Salt Lake Tribune.

And what about Utah's Tea totaling Legislature. These people don't make major changes in Utah's liquor laws without demanding a large piece of flesh in return. If the proposed club elimination ever sees the governors desk I guaran-fuck'n-tee-you we will loose a drinking liberty that we now enjoy. Remember we only got .5 oz more booze per shot because it was traded away for the "alco-pop" ban. Don't get me wrong, no one would be happier than yours-truly to see this arcane system of the sixties die. But it sounds too good to be true.

New Utah Beer Legislation

Well it's over. The Cluster on Capitol Hill wrapped-up late last night and Utah's beer faithful came out slightly ahead. Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich's bill that would decrease the markup on locally made beer wine & alcohol passed the House and now awaits the governor's signature. SB95 would cut the markup the state imposes from 86 percent to 64.5 percent on heavy beer(over 4.0% abv) and decrease the markup on spirits to 47 percent.

As with everything in life, with the good comes the bad. If your reading this your probably not a huge fan of "malternative" beverages like Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, ect. If you are then you've got 'till October to purchase them at you local grocery/convenient store. After that they're off to the state controlled liquor stores, where the selection will drop and the alcohol content and prices will climb. "Why is this happening"? Well, the state of Utah and the LDS Church determined that the makers of these beverages are primarily targeting underage drinkers. And that this is the only solution. To justify the move legally the lawmakers site that anything containing alcohol derived from distillation must be state controlled. Note: the primary method of alcohol production in these bevs is through fermentation. The distilled alcohol in the drinks come from the flavoring extracts used for sweetness. The distilled content is around 0.5% abw per 12oz. bottle. Under this law mouthwash and food extracts have to go to the liquor store as well. Will they? I doubt it. but that what the law states.

To give you an idea of how messed up this is Jack Daniels Bourbon is 43% abv. 86 proof.

Mike's Hard Lemonade is 4.0% abv. 6 proof.

Listerine mouthwash is 27% abv 38 proof.

I got a little off topic but there it is, your latest, ever-changing Utah Beer-a-Thon.

Reform or P.R.???

I honestly try to avoid the topic of f'd-up Utah liquor laws on this blog. But recently it's just unavoidable. Were it not for the absolute shitheadedness of some state lawmakers/leaders I'd be a much happier and much more well adjusted individual.

Over the past month or so Utahns and the world have been learning the "Utah Way" when it comes to liquor monopolies. Back in November we learned that malternative beverages need to be removed from store shelves because their deliciousness is too irresistible and impossible to keep out of the hands of babes.

We also learned recently that state liquor cops will go to any extreme to coerce restaurants and bar employees to violate state law. And the cherry on top, cold beer needs to be banned.

These three examples have become topics of extensive debate over that past few weeks. So much so, that the growns from within and from without are finally being heard in the states highest office.

When Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. took office in 2005, one of the issues he identified in his campaign was to normalize Utah's liquor laws, as compared to the rest of the nation. The three previous hot topics have apparently struck a nerve. To combat the negative press the governor has proposed a change to Utah's liquor laws. To do away with the need for the meddlesome "sidecar" and bring the state's liquor pours more in line with the rest of the country.

Input from the gov regarding liquor reform has been long awaited.

Huntsman said that when he came into office, his transition team identified the liquor laws as an area that should be changed. It suggested allowing wine sales in grocery stores, easing private club requirements and increasing the 1-ounce limit - long deemed inadequate by out-of-staters and others used to the standard pour. But, he said, the proposals fell flat with legislators three years ago and haven't been advanced since. The new initiative sends a message, Huntsman said, to those from outside the state who think you can't get a drink in Utah and goes toward "proving the point that we aren't out of sync with the rest of the nation."

This seem to be more P.R. than real reform but I think it helps combat the insanity that the in-state neo-cons have been proliferating.