Beer question OT

[John Reddie]

I know this has nothing to do with cars but where there are folks from many states that frequent this forum I thought I could get an answer to this. We used have reduced alcohol beer or 3 / 2 beer sold here in MA but no longer. Does anyone here know if it is still sold? I am not refering to the non-alcoholic brew like O'Douls and Miller Sharps. I remember one of the 3 / 2 beers was LA beer made by Budweiser. Thanks for any info here.

John R

[Flatie46]

I know in Tennessee you can get beer up to 6% alch by volume, many are less like 3.5%.

[mackster]

I drink 18% beer! LOL I never heard of this beer with reduce alcohol. around here they try to put more in it!

[55 Fargo]

Most Canuck Beers are in the 5 to 6 % range, most of you Guys south of the 49 th parallel, usually enjoy Canadian Beer. Sorry I never touch the stuff these days, many brands up here some are US brands like Bud, or Coors, but they are made up here, and do not taste the same as the US made beers.

I used to enjoy a Colorado made Coors beer, I think they were 1 of the best in the world.......Fred

[mackster]

Most Canuck Beers are in the 5 to 6 % range, most of you Guys south of the 49 th parallel, usually enjoy Canadian Beer. Sorry I never touch the stuff these days, many brands up here some are US brands like Bud, or Coors, but they are made up here, and do not taste the same as the US made beers.

I used to enjoy a Colorado made Coors beer, I think they were 1 of the best in the world.......Fred

I had some canadian beer at a local pub and indeed it tasted better. I am use to mexican beer which is really light and crisp. but it lacks taste and thickness...

[55 Fargo]

I had some canadian beer at a local pub and indeed it tasted better. I am use to mexican beer which is really light and crisp. but it lacks taste and thickness...

I used to enjoy a bottle or 2 of Mexicos Dos XX, back in the day, very nice beer

[greg g]

I remember 3.2 from the army. It was all you could get at the base exchange. If you got up to use the mens room, you burned off any buzz you may have started to get from the stuff.

I believe most of it has gone by the board lately. Some bible belt states only allow sales of the 3.2 stuff or you ca only buy real beer at a liquor store.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_39_54/ai_109569444/

[randroid]

Folks,

We have 3.2 beer in Colorado in some venues but serve the real stuff in restaurants and bars. There was a time when there were 'teenage' bars and if you were nineteen you could drink in them but then some brainiac figured out that if the kids drank twice as much they could get the same buzz so those bars got closed. 3.2 is still what's sold at ball games and big swap meets, anywhere there are a lot of people wanting to drink a beer. It's also what's sold in grocery stores so if you're in CO and want to pickup some suds for later stop by a liquor store to get real beer because it's all the same price.

-Randy

[BobT-47P15]

We are just 5 miles from the Kansas state line......

In KS they used to serve 3.2 beer and the drinking age was 18.

So, the kids from here would shuffle over there for beer and partying.

It was 5% in Missouri......and you had to be 21.

Not sure if they still do that nowadays.

Then there was the stuff called "near beer", tasted like beer but had

almost no alcohol content (or maybe none). Usually avoided that.

Back in college days there were some liquor stores who sold their

house brand of beer for around a dollar a six pack...popular with

the students.

[Don Coatney]

I had some canadian beer at a local pub and indeed it tasted better. I am use to mexican beer which is really light and crisp. but it lacks taste and thickness...

Advertising hype.... Why do none of the beer companies advertise a "heavy" beer, or a beer that is not crisp but soggy as all beer is more soggy than crisp?

Fresh, smooth, real, pure, rich, free flowing, drinkability, all words with little meaning.

And the biggie, Bud Select has a "clean finish". I have my own perception of what a clean finish is and it certinally has nothing to do with beer:D

[Jim Saraceno]

Up in Minnesota, the only beer you can buy in the grocery store is 3.2 beer. You have to go to a liquor store to buy the real stuff.

[Edward Roberts]

Here in Alabama the limit is now 13.9%, which means I can try the beer my brother just informed me of, Sam Adams Imperial White... if I can find it. Here in the South beer seems to be about just getting a buzz or more. No variety and very little taste. Spent a little time in Wisconsin and was amazed at the huge variety of regional brews. Still have an old 40 oz. Bad Frog bottle and lapel pin. Could be worth dozens of quarters some day.

I guess my point is, what is the purpose of 3.2% beer? The fullness of body is what gives beer its character and taste. Without that you might as well just drink water. Of course, 3.2 may be cheaper than Evian.

[greg g]

3.2 is what the authorities thought would stiffle drunkedness amog youth and service men. So that was all that was allowed to be sold. Most of this would be in what had been referred to a the bible belt states. Remember Blue laws stores closed on Sunday no alcohal sales on Sundays state run liqour stores??? then some sharpie realized how much sales tax money was not being generated and presto chango................

[Edward Roberts]

I'm sorry to report that much of that still exists in Alabama. Some of us try to point out the South isn't as stereotypical as the rest of the country thinks, then we do something stereotypical.

State run liquor stores: check

No lottery: check

No gambling: check - unless it's 'charity' bingo, or you are friends with the (insert political office here)

No alcohol sales on Sunday: check - unless your county or town is wet and has a private seller

Population of NY: 19.5 million

Population of AL: 4.7 million

# churches in NY: 7800

# churches in AL: 7400

What kind of beer do y'all have?

[Don Coatney]

Growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana just a short hop from the Ohio border there were many beer runs made to Ohio where 3.2 beer was available to 18 year olds. This law has now changed. Of course there were also many liquor stores in Fort Wayne that would sell not only beer but whiskey to anyone who was tall enough to lay money on the counter. I recall buying a pint of whiskey when I was 12 years old. Then there was the famous Ice House in Van Wert, Ohio that sold high powered beer to anyone. I think they must have had the Sheriff on there payroll. They would sell the beer and make money. Then the Sheriff would bust the kids and fine them heavily. But the Sheriff never closed down the Ice House.

I recall when I was seventeen being stopped for peeling out in my 56 Furd in a small town in northern Indiana. I had driven up there to visit some girl and her parents did not like me and did not know I was there. I had not had a drop to drink but I had a couple of warm cans of beer stowed in my trunk. The arresting officer did an illegal search and found the beer. He hauled me to a justice of the peace at around midnight. There was a huge pile of ice on the ground outside the office of this justice of the peace. It was the middle of summer and I was not the first one hauled in that night. The JP had an open beer on his desk and would occasionally sip on it. My fine was fifteen bucks or two weeks in the slammer. I did not have fifteen bucks in my pocket so I had to call this girls father to bail me out.

[Flatie46]

3.2 is what the authorities thought would stiffle drunkedness amog youth and service men. So that was all that was allowed to be sold. Most of this would be in what had been referred to a the bible belt states. Remember Blue laws stores closed on Sunday no alcohal sales on Sundays state run liqour stores??? then some sharpie realized how much sales tax money was not being generated and presto chango................

We just past liquor by the drink here a few months ago along with the sale of beer on Sunday. Beer cannot be sold within a certain distance of a church or school here[ can't remeber what the distance is].

Don, I wont like any young man that comes to see my daughter and if he called needing the favor you asked all he would have got from me was a dial tone. He thought more of you than you think.

Makster, 18% beer??? Wow a 6pack would sure go alot farther with that stuff.

[John Reddie]

Thanks for all of the input. Who makes the 3 / 2 beer sold in Minnesota and Colorado, Budweiser and Miller, or is it put out by independent brewers?

John R

[hkestes41]

We are just 5 miles from the Kansas state line......

In KS they used to serve 3.2 beer and the drinking age was 18.

So, the kids from here would shuffle over there for beer and partying.

Bob, I resemble that remark. Spent many a night in Galena or Columbus before I grew up.

I do enjoy a Newcastle or Shiner on occassion but I probably consumed more of that cheap 3.2 Kansas beer in a month back then than I do of the good stuff in a year now.

[greg g]

I believe 3.2 is "regular" beer with water added to it to achieve the specific gravity of a 3.2 % alcohol solution.

Think of it in the same light as the 50/50 anti freeze, you pay for the extra water....

[BobT-47P15]

Bob, I resemble that remark. Spent many a night in Galena or Columbus before I grew up.

I do enjoy a Newcastle or Shiner on occassion but I probably consumed more of that cheap 3.2 Kansas beer in a month back then than I do of the good stuff in a year now.

Those were the days..........the beer I buy now for home seems to last for quite a while.

Used to drink my share in college days at frat parties and

river parties - and numerous other occasions.

[1940plymouth]

With all the talk about Kansas, I was stationed at Forbes AFB in Topeka from Oct of 71 until Dec of '72, I remember the 3/2 beer, but when it comes to beer, what I remember is my first Coors, at that time it wasn't sold on the eastern side of the Mississippi. It would be many years before I had another one:(

[Edward Roberts]

I do enjoy a Newcastle or Shiner on occassion...

When we went out at Texas A&M it was Lone Star ($1.00/bottle) or Pearl ($.85 WITH a pictogram on the cap). Out on our own it was Schaefer (cases of which they'd practically pay you to take). I swore that once I got my first salary I'd be a Shiner Bock man. While I can get it at some stores here in Alabama, waitresses stare blankly at the request and suggest Sam Adams instead.

It's just not the same.