Pennsylvania Liquor Laws

[535IS]

I actually wasn't referencing the 3.2 thing, since I wasn't drinking age (or quite possible alive) back then.

No, they used to have some limit that kept out higher gravity beers - this goes back to the late 90's or early 2000's. I remember because I wanted a certain Barley Wine and I had to drive up to Michigan to get it. These days, I can easily find the 8-10%+ beers if I want them.

OK; in that time period, I was here, not in Ohio. I musta' missed a lot in that decade.

 

[hlothery]

Don't Goldwings have a Pony Keg option?

With fillup points identified on the Navi option.

 

[RIK]

...and I have to add Rik, you'll never find a town full of more drunks than PGH.

There are no drunks native to Pittsburgh. We are descended from men of steel sinew and fists of granite. Of women that kept them in line. We are weaned on a shot and a beer ( not much different than our mother's milk). We are Professional Drinkers.

 

[bob1100rtc]

I'm quite proud of my drinking heritage. We do in fact have some screwed up laws though. I would love to get one of those state store jobs however.

 

[statdawg]

I'm quite proud of my drinking heritage. We do in fact have some screwed up laws though. I would love to get one of those state store jobs however.

A friend of mine is a store manager and there is always the threat of privatization around contract time and he also has to work some Sundays. I am no sure but I also believe that the government agency has a private CEO making it a high risk state career.

I do like the changes in Pennsylvania there is better liquor and spirit selection and the beer stores have all my favorite beers including Tusker from South Africa, and all the fine Czech, German, and Belgium brands. It gets overwhelming at times when you are set on one brand and get browsing, it's coming down to saying hello to the manager as I enter the store and ask what do they have new and unusual. Also there has been two upstart wineries in my area so things seem to be reaching out to consumer demands.

I don't mine the other laws I can live in a place where there is no age restrictions or laws to blue laws and a black market. Just get the drunks off the road, make the place like Europe.

 

[osbornk]

Restrictive liquor laws kept my recently deceased uncle "employed" for most of his life. He made and sold moonshine but most of his income was from the sale of "bonded" whisky. He would drive across the state line from his dry county and buy liquor from a state liquor store and resell it in his dry county at a substantial markup. Most people in the area where he lived knew what he was doing but he did it for over 40 years and never spent a day in jail.

 

[akbeemer]

Sounds like your late uncle might qualify for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

 

[osbornk]

Sounds like your late uncle might qualify for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

He lived about 30 or 40 miles from the roads Junior Johnson learned to drive on while hauling shine.

 

[36654]

There are no drunks native to Pittsburgh. We are descended from men of steel sinew and fists of granite. Of women that kept them in line. We are weaned on a shot and a beer ( not much different than our mother's milk). We are Professional Drinkers.

Granite doesn't work for PGH. To be poetically correct, you'll have to use soft coal, coke or limestone. On second thought, use fists of steel and something else. Perhaps, work in a reference to a blast furnace........

 

[36654]

No, they used to have some limit that kept out higher gravity beers - this goes back to the late 90's or early 2000's. I remember because I wanted a certain Barley Wine and I had to drive up to Michigan to get it. These days, I can easily find the 8-10%+ beers if I want them.

Colt 45 or Spaten Optimator, which do I choose...........

A number of states had those old blue laws targeted at Malt liquors up until the microbrew fad of the 1990's

 

[The_Veg]

Here in Jawja (that's Georgia for those of you who don't speak redneck) the laws are mostly easy to live with. I don't know how much things vary by county or municipality, but here in the Atlanta metro area you'll generally find beer & wine in grocery and convenience stores, hard stuff in liquor stores (which do also carry beer & wine). The bummer is that the state still forbids Sunday sales. All sorts of exotica is available here though, and I'd say that overall Atlanta has the best selection of imports/micros of anyplace I've been.

I grew up in Alabama and still have family there. Alabama is in flux right now, as there is an active movement to get beer-laws changed. Free The Hops succeeded in getting the beer alcohol limit raised from 6% to 13.9% in 2009, and now they are working on getting changes made to container size laws and also to laws affecting brewpubs, breweries, and home brewers. My brother is a very active volunteer for Free The Hops.

Alabama used to restrict hard liquor sales to ABC stores, but at some point in the 1900s that was ruled unconstitutional by the state supreme court, and the word was that the stores would be closed. They never did. Private retailers do exist now, but the state just couldn't give up the profits I guess.

 

[easy]

The 21st amendment effectively left consumption laws up to the local jurisdiction. As a result the laws are as varied as the people in the country.

Easy

 

[RIK]

Granite doesn't work for PGH. To be poetically correct, you'll have to use soft coal, coke or limestone. On second thought, use fists of steel and something else. Perhaps, work in a reference to a blast furnace........

I did not realize I was being poetic. But thank you for saying so.
If you travel through the city and its neighborhoods, you will see beautiful stonework in granite, marble and more. Most all of it worked by hand. The men that did this work were Pittsburgh Craftsmen. Just like those men that shoveled coke into ovens, or went down into the mines, they passed along a part of themselves to those that followed. Including the fact we can sometimes be full of hot air. (how's that for a reference to blast furnace?)

 

[MAYLETT]

Here in Utah, 3.2 percent beer is for sale in grocery and convenience stores. Any other liquor is sold in state-owned liquor stores. Restaurants with the appropriate licenses can sell weak mixed drinks or wine to customers who also order food.

The state legislature is constantly juggling, changing and revamping the laws on what bars and restaurants are or aren't allowed to sell and to whom they can sell it and under what circumstances (days of week, times of day, in what part of the restaurant, whether minors are present, whether a liquor menu can be presented, whether or not it's a private club, the age of the server, how close to a school, whether or not photos of liquor can or must be shown on the menu, whether the server is allowed or forbidden to mention that drinks are available, whether the drinks must be served unmixed and accompanied by mini bottles, whether the drinks must be mixed by the bartender, whether mixed drinks have to be disguised as something else in order to protect children, etc. ÔÇö it goes on and on).

Since I'm not much of a drinker, I'm not sure what the laws are this year ÔÇö they change way too often to keep up with. It' also keeps the tourists guessing.

 

[The_Veg]

It never ceases to amaze me what a big deal we make of alcohol in this country. Such an immature culture are we.

 

[osbornk]

It never ceases to amaze me what a big deal we make of alcohol in this country. Such an immature culture are we.

Why are we the only country that puts it in our gas? Such a waste.

 

[grafikfeat]

It never ceases to amaze me what a big deal we make of alcohol in this country. Such an immature culture are we.

Is that why they keep raising the drinking age?

As 'they' say: "It was Alcohol that settled the West".

 

[35634]

Why are we the only country that puts it in our gas? Such a waste.

Not to nitpic, but in Brazil it is done on a nationwide scale. They use sugar beets, and the process is energy positve. Maybe we should get the Arabs to drink more, then trade them corn squeezings for oil?

 

[grafikfeat]

Not to nitpic, but in Brazil it is done on a nationwide scale. They use sugar beets, and the process is energy positve. Maybe we should get the Arabs to drink more, then trade them corn squeezings for oil?

It's E85 in Brasil. They're off the oil teat.

 

[36654]

It's E85 in Brasil. They're off the oil teat.

Brazil is a major oil producer and Petrobas is possibly the leading engineering firm for off-shore drilling.