Holy crap, I have been away from HBT for a while...
SLC has plenty of beers and at least three homebrew shops in town (Arts, Beernut, Salt City Brew Supply). Beer on tap is going to be 4%, and there are funky rules that you might see sometimes with that. Not often, but they're funky when you do see them. For instance, at Oktoberfest up at Snowbird, they must segregate two areas of crowds: the bottle/can beer area and the draft beer area. Unfortunately, you can't enter the other area with your beer...it's crazy, but somehow its how their permit works. I digress... Grocery stores, gas stations, and so on can sell 4% beer any day of the week (no flavored malt beverages a-la Mikes Hard Lemonade- only in state liquor stores). You can get a high-point beer at restaurants, breweries, and state run liquor stores. The liquor stores are going to be open for lousy hours 5 to 6 days a week depending on where you are in the state. No liquor sales on federal or state holidays, and no liquor (or anything sold by the state liquor stores) on election days. Locals plan ahead for holidays, or are faced with a long arduous trek to Evanston, Wyoming (fireworks, porn, liquor) on Sunday or on a holiday. Bars can still serve every day though, although the election day thing might still be a deal breaker for hard drinks...I'd have to look that one up to be sure. You can get around some of the rules though if you know the tricks. For instance, if you are hard up for a bottle of wine and can't or don't want to drive to Wyoming on Christmas day or something, you can go to Olive Garden or somewhere similar and purchase some food (a "restaraunt" must serve food with any alcohol; only "bars" can serve alcohol sans food), then pay the exorbitant corking fee for a server to open a bottle of wine purchased at said restaraunt, then just don't drink it and take it home. It's an expensive bottle, but you can do it if you're desperate and didn't prepare. Some other places, like Epic, have a restaurant in the brewery and allow the sale of high-point beer even on Sunday.
There are a few breweries in and around town: Wasatch, Squatters, Uinta, Epic, Red Rock, Desert Edge, Hoppers, Bohemian, Roosters, and Shades of Pale. There is plenty of fun in and around town, and although the predominant culture is not one you would want to hang out with, they do make a lot of folks rule out Utah that might not otherwise. To me, it keeps it less crowded than it could be. I love that I can hit the trails on Sundays and see far less people than I did on Saturday. It's awesome.
