screwed up beer laws

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God Emporer BillyBrew

God Emporer BillyBrew

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We have some screwy beer laws in Oklahoma.

*If you want to buy anything stronger than 3.2, you have to buy it in the liquor store.

*The liquor store can only sell things that contain alcohol. Want ice? Sorry!

*Did I mention that liquor store beer has to be sold cold.

*Anything that's sold in gas stations or grocery stores as 3.2 can't be sold in liquor stores as strong beer..

*However, there are no dry counties in Oklahoma, and

*You can buy 3.2 on Sunday but,

* The liquor stores will only sell alcohol from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

I know that other states have some screwed up beer laws. You should tell us about some screwy law you have.
 
We're all sorts of inconsistant in Illinois. I lived in a neighborhood that you couldn't buy beer after 9:00pm on weekdays and 10:00pm on weekends. In some areas, you can only buy beer or wine in the grocery stores. We have some dry counties.

In my town, there are stores that sell until 4:00am and a few bars still open that serve till 4:00am. Some of the gambling boats start selling at 6:00am.
 
At least now you can get a drink in a restaurant...wasn't too long ago when you couldn't. Also, you have nudie bars that are really nudie...tho it sucks that you can only drink 3.2 beer in them. Also you can now find an occasional decent beer there...and the labeling requirements for liquor stores aren't nearly as strict as they are in Texas for instance (you now have a much better selection of imports then we do down here). You should count your blessings...during the sixties if you wanted to cop a buzz your choices were basically coors or ripple. :(
 
billybrew said:
We have some screwy beer laws in Oklahoma.

*If you want to buy anything stronger than 3.2, you have to buy it in the liquor store.

*The liquor store can only sell things that contain alcohol. Want ice? Sorry!

*Did I mention that liquor store beer has to be sold cold.

*Anything that's sold in gas stations or grocery stores as 3.2 can't be sold in liquor stores as strong beer..

*However, there are no dry counties in Oklahoma, and

*You can buy 3.2 on Sunday but,

* The liquor stores will only sell alcohol from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

I know that other states have some screwed up beer laws. You should tell us about some screwy law you have.
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Liquor store beer has to be sold cold? Seems like when I lived there (born and raised, left there 12 years ago), it couldn't be sold cold.

I'm moving to OKC next year. I fear that I'm moving to beer purgatory. :( Good thing I know how to brew!
 
Sam75 said:
I'm moving to OKC next year. I fear that I'm moving to beer purgatory. :( Good thing I know how to brew!
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With all due respect to the place I grew up in, you're just moving to purgatory, period. :eek:
 
Sam75 said:
Liquor store beer has to be sold cold? Seems like when I lived there (born and raised, left there 12 years ago), it couldn't be sold cold.

I'm moving to OKC next year. I fear that I'm moving to beer purgatory. :( Good thing I know how to brew!
Click to expand...

Dude, my bad. I had had a few home brew's last night. :drunk: It has to be sold hot. Sorry to spread bad info!

Pistolero, you're right our beer laws have come a long way and I've noticed that we do have a better selection of imports in our better liquor stores than you guys do.

Oh yeah, I guess it was time for OU to get a whipping, huh? I'm not a big fan either way, but I did enjoy us beating on Texas for the last five years. It's kind of nice to see the pendulum swing a little, though.
 
billybrew said:
Dude, my bad. I had had a few home brew's last night. :drunk: It has to be sold hot. Sorry to spread bad info!
Click to expand...

Ahh, thanks. Not that I have a problem with beer being sold cold, but to me, that would mean less storage space, which in turn would mean less selection!

El P: Besides a more limited beer selection, I'm looking forward to a little slower-paced area to live. This place is way to friggin' crowded, considering how (relatively) small it is. Plus, it's home, so it's a purgatory I'm familiar with. :D
 
Sam75 said:
El P: Besides a more limited beer selection, I'm looking forward to a little slower-paced area to live. This place is way to friggin' crowded, considering how (relatively) small it is. Plus, it's home, so it's a purgatory I'm familiar with. :D
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Just a suggestion...if you want slow paced look east of Tinker towards Shawnee. Stay away from the area from Moore up to Edmond...it's about as crowded in those areas as Dallas is now.
 
We have plenty of blue laws in NC which vary from county to county, with the extreme eastern and western counties being the "worst". Some counties are dry (resulting in Brew Thru's at county lines), some are dry on Sunday, some don't allow liquor by the drink, etc. However, our greatest statewide victory came just about a month ago when our 6% abv cap was lifted to 15%. Some establishments were serving high abv beers the night the governor signed the bill into law!
 
El Pistolero said:
Just a suggestion...if you want slow paced look east of Tinker towards Shawnee. Stay away from the area from Moore up to Edmond...it's about as crowded in those areas as Dallas is now.
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I-35 is a bear, so are parts of I-40, but I don't think it's as bad as the Dallas, Arlington, Ft. Worth area. Of course, I don't really know my way around there, which makes it worse, but I still think it's worse than our traffic.


If you're not on one of the two mentioned above, traffic's not that bad.
 
In Wisconsin we have some of the least restrictive beer and liquor laws around, but that does not mean we are immune to some dumb ones. Not too many years ago they decided that no take-out liquor could be sold after 9 P.M. (you can still drink it in a bar or restaurant after 9. You just can't buy it and take it with you). Now, how that helps anyone is beyond me.

Where I live (Milwaukee) some of the suburbs allow supermarkets to have liquor departments right in the store, while other neighboring suburbs make them have a separate liquor store with it's own entrance (apparently a person is much less likely to become an alcoholic if they have to put their groceries in their car and then go back into the store to buy their liquor).
 
billybrew said:
A true fan, huh? My best friend is a transplanted Okie living in Arlington. He's going to have a crappy week.
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Yeah, I'm a true fan, but I don't get suicidal (any more) over a football game...takes too much energy that can be better spent on brewing. :cool:
 
Lads, personally I think that the most screwed up law ye have over there is the 21 age limit on alcohol. It's bad enuff here in Ireland at 18, but it's just draconian at 21. In parts of europe it's 16 for beer and wine, 18 for spirits. That's a much better idea in my opinion.
 
Agreed. The 21-years-old law actually CREATES alcholics in this country. We have this forbidden liquid that we can't consume.... We wait and wait and wait and wait for our 21st birthday. When it finally arrives....?

We binge drink and get totally hammered.

We then repeat this rediculous behavior over and over and over. Soon, we are binge drinking and dependent on the stuff.

The ultimate irony? You can be forced to go fight an unjustified war and watch your close friends be killed on a daily basis. Then, after doing your 'duty' you come home at the age of 20 with more horrors in your mind than anyone deserves.

AND YOU STILL CAN"T GO AND HAVE A BEER!

I got arrested for underaged consumption when I was 19 years old (about 2 weeks from my 20th birthday). My father was abolsutely IRATE, but not with me. He was furious with the laws.

-walker
 
Walker said:
We binge drink and get totally hammered.

We then repeat this rediculous behavior over and over and over. Soon, we are binge drinking and dependent on the stuff.

Then we learn to make it ourselves. :cross:
My Dad freaked when I turned 18 and had to register for the Selective Service. The drinking age in NC had just been raised to 21. He told me , " You'll drink in my house!", and we did. Thanks, Dad.
Worked a job in E. Tenn. where stores near churches and schools couldn't sell beer. In Kentucky, I found that you can't buy beer at all on Sunday. Luckily, it was a ten minute drive to Ohio, where you can get all the beer you want.
Here in NC, Johnston County is dry, or was. I stopped into a store there that belonged to one of the state's biggest bootleggers. Couldn't find the beer section. I asked the clerk about it . In a tone that I took to mean she didn't approve of drinkers or drinking, she informed me that it was a dry county. Didn't know they still had those. Seems very narrow-minded.
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sudsmonkey said:
In Kentucky, I found that you can't buy beer at all on Sunday. Luckily, it was a ten minute drive to Ohio, where you can get all the beer you want.
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Off topic, but....

Funny you should mention this. I went to college in Cincinnati, and we always bought our alcohol and tobacco in KY because it was so much cheaper.

One day I was loading up for one of the later-to-be-legendary parties that were hald on a regular basis in the house I shared with 4 to 8 other guys (depending on the season). I had 4 kegs in the back of my Blazer and was coming back across the bridge into Cincy from Newport, KY. I got pulled over for speeding.

Now, all of my roommates were too damn lazy to accompany me on this particular trip, so I was all by my lonesome.

Well... this is when I learned about bootlegging laws and what was considered 'personal use' amounts of alcoholic beverages. Apparently one person cannot 'personally use' 4 kegs of beer, so I had some trouble that day.

-walker
 
If I'm posting, then I am not drunk enough to ramble. My fingers seem to get very thick and clumsy when I drink too much and any post I attempted to make would look sort of like this:

hewuw what ar eal; yof ytu guys oiu g tonige? i got prerey smached on this laatewsat bactha nad iu cab't ser asa9ight.

-walker
 
That is specifically why the Admins. gave us the S. Faced icon. It saves you from having to go back and edit. If a word doesn't make sense, the reader can then look at the letters around the one that doesn't fit to figure out just what in the hell you actually were trying to say. They're very drunk-friendly here. Drunk posting is a very popular pastime here. In fact, we're thinking about putting together an olympic team for it. El P. and Sudster will be co-captains. I get to be the mascot. Maybe you could drive the bus.
 
mmditter said:
In Wisconsin we have some of the least restrictive beer and liquor laws around, but that does not mean we are immune to some dumb ones. Not too many years ago they decided that no take-out liquor could be sold after 9 P.M. (you can still drink it in a bar or restaurant after 9. You just can't buy it and take it with you). Now, how that helps anyone is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Actually in Wisconsin, local municiplaties control the specific time that alcohol can be sold. So, if a few years ago the laws changed in Milwaukee, then you need to looka t yoru local elected officals because it's their fault. The state cuts it off a midnight, but municipalities can elect to make that time earlier.

For instance, Madison stops take out alcohol at 9pm. However, Maple Bluff, a Madison suburb, has no local ordinance, therefore the one liquor store in MB can sell till midnight.

The time of cutting off take out sales can have a direct impact not on people's drinking but on the problems that LEO see related to late night drinking. At least that's the theory. It won't stop a chronic alcoholic but when that party that was just going to be 'a couple of the guys' turns into a 40 person boozefest by at 10pm-- well, they won't be acquiring any beer in Madison so the odds are that the party will wind down quickly.

The state also allows for bars to sell carry out, although again, local municipalities often place specific restrictions on bars to prevent that.

The reasoning behind cutting off the time to carry out to before the time that bars close is also reasonable, although not usually practically enforced. The idea is is that technically at a bar in Wisconsin, the bartender (the person with the license to permit service of opened alcohol over the bar) and by extension any person who serves alcohol in the facility (one license holder can 'supervise' several unlicensed persons who serve) is responsible for the behavior and consumption levels of the patrons. This means that people drinking in bars are less likely to get into trouble because their behavior is being monitored by a 3rd party.

In fact the last time I was licensed and I don't think this has changed, it is finable offense for a bartender or his agents to serve alcohol to anyone who is intoxicated. The concept is to allow for a measure of control outside the 'impaired' individual.

This fine is in additon to penalties against the person that holds the FACILITY license-- there are 2 service licenses required to operate a bar. The first is for the facility and it defines what areas you can serve in and what you can serve (carry out or open container) and the holder of this license (it is tied to the location AND a specific person) is held responsible for the entire facility and all bartenders in the facility). You also are required to have a licensed bartender on premise when any service is going on. The person who holds the facility license can be different than the bartender license but they do not have to be.



Please note I am merely clairifying the laws here not stating my own opinions or saying that I agree with the reasoning.
 
Walker said:
If I'm posting, then I am not drunk enough to ramble.
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Then with all due respect, you shouldn't post in the "Drunken & Mindless" Forum. Many beginners could be unduly influenced when they incorrectly take your perfectly lucid and helpful postings to be mindless drivel. ;)
 
The French have it right, kids can have a glass of wine with ameal if they want. Drink is freely available and is social, when it comes to 18, it's no big deal.
 
Another Wisconsin state oddity or 2:

If you are over 21 years of age and bring your child into a Wisconsin bar, you can order alcohol and serve it to your child in that bar. It goes without saying that means you can take your under age kids to a bar and 'hang out'.

If you are 21 or older and marry someone under 21 you can go to a bar and order your spouse alcohol. (or not-- the fact is yoru spouse can be present in the bar.


Some bars (and some cities) have policies against these things but strictly speaking, it's legal.
 
kornkob said:
If you are 21 or older and marry someone under 21 you can go to a bar and order your spouse alcohol. (or not-- the fact is yoru spouse can be present in the bar.
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Also if you are 51 or older, and marry someone under 21, I envy you very much. :D
 
Walker said:
Agreed. The 21-years-old law actually CREATES alcholics in this country. We have this forbidden liquid that we can't consume.... We wait and wait and wait and wait for our 21st birthday. When it finally arrives....?

We binge drink and get totally hammered.

We then repeat this rediculous behavior over and over and over. Soon, we are binge drinking and dependent on the stuff.
-walker
Click to expand...

Excellent point. The drinking age, at least for beer, should be no higher than 18, possibly even 16. That way parents could teach their children to drink responsibly. Can you imagine what it would be like if the driving age were increased to 19 or 21? Teenagers would get ahold of cars and drive them without a license, and... since it would be an illicit act, do you think they would drive responsibly? No way.
 
Over here you can drink when you are 18 as well and you can by beer from corner stores, and grocery stores until 11:00pm. Lots of selection and plenty of really good micro breweries. You can buy beer until 3:00am at a bar or restaurant but then you have to take a break until 8:00am. You aren't aloud to drink and drive though...(which apparently you can still do in one state, Mississippi I think?)
 
Folks, I'm not that old at 43 but, when I was 18 years old, I was at legal drinking age. Not only that, you could drink while driving. More than once I waived at a state trouper with a tall boy in my hand. I went away for 8 years while serving in the USAF and things changed back here big time.

Everything from open container laws and 21 drinking age to very restrictive laws on knives and guns. I came back to a much different world than I left.

I grew up in a dry county. It was 15 miles to the county line on a winding Farm to Market road. Every year I was in High School, we lost 1 or 2 due to accidents on that road. They have since mad the county legal for off premises sales and the teen accident fatalities have gone down.

Kids are going to drink. I agree with the lower drinking age of 16, 17, or 18. I allowed my daughters to drink occasionally in the home on special days like 4 th of July, New Years Eve, ect. They were allowed to taste what ever I was drinking if they asked. I'm of the opinion that if it isn't a mystery or a forbidden fruit, the allure is not so strong as to cause reckless behavior. They had a good example of responsible drinking and I talked to them about it. My oldest is in her 3rd year of University and does not have a drinking or drug problem. My youngest is a senior in High School and is currently at the top of her class scholastically. Yes, I'm proud of them.

Laws can be wrong, many are.
 
Fudd said:
You aren't aloud to drink and drive though...(which apparently you can still do in one state, Mississippi I think?)
Click to expand...

I believe that between MADD and the federal government using highway money to strongarm states into doing their bidding everyone now has a 21 year old drinking age, fairly stiff DWI penalties and no open container driving.


But I could be wrong. Maybe some state held out against the fed's "you can't get no highway money 'less you pass laws that match our desires" gambit.

Wisconsin held out against the threat initially when the fed was looking to change the drinking age to 21. The logic at the time was that we'd lose as much revenue from our fairly hefty booze tax by dropping the age as we'd lose from the fed. Between a governer who was all for paving as much of Wisconsin as possible and a strong, self righteous MADD movement WI finally caved to pressure to raise it to 21.

IMHO, when WI raised it to 19 that was reasonable. That limited high school exposure to alcohol (limited, not prevent) and I can see some vlaue in that since 18 year old high school kids have regular access to 14 year old high school kids. Add booze to the mix and there's potential not just for substance abuse but people abuse. There are far fewer situations where 19 year old kids have access to 14 year old kids.

Not entirely logical but I can concede the reasoning.

And as far as I am concerned, anyone carrying an ID identifying them as a member of or former member of any US branch of military service should be able to drink whatever they damn well please, thank you very much. If you are old enough to kill people at the behest of the United States you oughta be able to drink here.

The fact that there isn't an exemption for service members to drink is probably one of the top 10 stupidest omissions in alcohol related regulations. When I have had myself appointed Overlord of the United States for Life (as is part of my 5 year plan for world domination) that is one of the laws that will be changed in the first quarter.
 
kornkob said:
When I have had myself appointed Overlord of the United States for Life (as is part of my 5 year plan for world domination) that is one of the laws that will be changed in the first quarter.
Click to expand...
I was Overlord of the United States for Life for a little while once...it's not all it's cracked up to be. :(
 
Judging from my conversations at the local pizza place with some of the high school students, it is common for kids in rural Oregron to start drinking at 12 or 13. One girl celebrated her 17th birthday in the country "live sober" program. After she got back, she said that the 21 days in the program was the longest period that she had been without a drink since she was 10.

I really don't think the 21 laws do much, except make kids think that drinking is grown up. My introduction to beer was a can of warm Hamm's on a hot, humid Illinois summer day. I was about 8 & Tom Oltman's father thought it would be funny to give Tom, Larry & I each a can. Sure was, didn't touch the stuff again until I was 19.
 
kornkob said:
IMHO, when WI raised it to 19 that was reasonable. That limited high school exposure to alcohol (limited, not prevent) and I can see some vlaue in that since 18 year old high school kids have regular access to 14 year old high school kids. Add booze to the mix and there's potential not just for substance abuse but people abuse. There are far fewer situations where 19 year old kids have access to 14 year old kids.

Not entirely logical but I can concede the reasoning.
Click to expand...

I guess I agree with you on that. When I was in high school the legal age was 18. While I was happy about that, a lot of parents were not. I occasionally drank starting at 16. Things were a lot different then. There were bars that didn't care and we certainly knew which ones would serve us. Some parents would even hold huge beer parties for their kids when they turned 18 and you can bet many of the people drinking there were under-age. A 19 year old drinking age does tend to eliminate the access for 14-16 year olds.

21 to me makes no sense. You mention the military issue-- anyone who can be sent to die for our country should sure be able to drink. Almost as ridiculous to me is the idea that college students can't legally drink until probably their junior year. If you send your kids away to live in another town to go to school, aren't they adults?
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I would think the laws in OK have a lot to do with curbing alcoholism among the Native Americans.
Click to expand...
i know this is kinda late, but being a native american from oklahoma who lived on the rez' a time or two, i saw more alcoholism in redneck cowboys. dont get me wrong there were native drunks too, but more so with the potato chip wearin cowpokes. just my observation.
 

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