3.2 Beer and Pending CO Beer Laws
I was shocked when I first came to Colorado and learned that grocery stores and gas stations not only don’t sell liquor, but they also sell 3.2% ABV beer. I thought 3.2 beer was unique to Utah, I had no idea that those laws spread west to Colorado.
To buy full alcohol percentage beer one has to go to a special liquor store (although they’re not state run like I believe they are in Utah). When grocery shopping a few weeks ago I started looking at the beer selection. There were some craft-looking beers from some breweries in Boulder, big brewery “wannabe craft beers” like Blue Moon and of course, all the usual suspects from Millers, Coors and Budweiser. I look at a few of the craft beers and moved on, not buying anything.
It wasn’t until a day later that I started wondering about that. “Wait a minute, I thought grocery stores could only sell 3.2% beer?” I thought to myself. The next time I was at the grocery store I looked at most of the beer on the shelf, they were all 3.2%, even the beer that appeared to be craft brews. I can’t remember the brewery, so I’m not sure if it’s just bigger breweries trying to look like craft beers, or if some of the craft brewers are trying to get in on the grocery store crowd, but they were all 3.2%. According to a friend of mine that lived in Utah for a while, the 3.2% beers taste uncannily similar to full alcohol brews (at least the big three, Bud, Coors and Miller).
I was a little annoyed with the fact that you couldn’t buy real beer at the grocery store at first, until I realized that Colorado has the most craft breweries in the country, and that this could be the reason for it. All of the liquor stores that I’ve come across appear to be independent businesses, and most of them have an amazing selection of local and smaller craft breweries. When large national-chain grocery stores are allowed to sell beer they can negotiate with large suppliers to get better prices. The smaller craft breweries can’t afford to sell for those lower prices and won’t be carried at the grocery stores. Sure the liquor stores have a monopoly on selling real beer, but it’s not such a bad thing. I’d rather have to go to a special store to buy good beer than be forced to buy crap while buying my groceries. The liquor stores here have an amazing selection of beer compared to liquor stores in California.
There’s a bill bouncing around the local legislature in Colorado that would allow grocery stores to sell real beer. I think this is a bad idea. So do the majority of microbreweries in the state. You can read more about it here.
