Earlier this week, I was in Salt Lake City International Airport. I had flown in from Detroit, MI and had a couple of hours layover before catching my flight to San Jose, CA. As per my normal operating procedure when I have an airport layover, I sought out somewhere to have a couple of beers. My search landed me in the taproom and restaurant of Red Rock Brewery. Established in 1994, Red Rock has been a pillar of Salt Lake’s craft beer scene for close to 30 years. Their main establishment is in downtown Salt Lake City.

I found an empty seat at the bar and perused the beer menu. I opted for a beer called Monkey Mind, a Hazy IPA. As I was looking at the menu, something stood out; all ten of the beers on draft had an identical ABV – 5%. Yet, the Red Rock beers that were available in cans had ABVs ranging from 5.5% to 11%. I quickly figured what was going on, which my bartender quickly confirmed. Under Utah law, it is illegal to sell any beer on draft whose ABV exceeds 5%. Another fun fact regarding alcohol in Utah is that, at 0.05%, it has the strictest DUI limit in the country. Anyway, as I was enjoying my beer at the bar, I quickly discovered another quirk of Utah law. A young couple sat down next to me. The female member of the duo was interested in something light and refreshing. The bartender described two Lagers/Pilsners they had on draft. However, when she asked if she could sample them to aid in her decision making, she was stymied by Utah law – free samples are prohibited.

Had I been making this trip five years earlier, the strongest draft beer I would have been able to buy in a bar or brewery taproom in Utah would have been 4% ABV. This limit had been in place since the end of Prohibition in 1933. New legislation, however, passed in 2019, raised this limit to 5%.

Utah, of course, is home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members take many of their rules for living from the Book of Mormon. Estimates of the share of the state’s population who are Mormon range from 42% to 67%. The Mormon faith prohibits the consumption of a range of unhealthy substances, including alcohol, coffee, and tobacco. According to an article written by Kathy Stephenson in the Salt Lake City Tribune, “the government-controlled liquor system has always walked a fine line between providing alcohol for legal adults and being fully separate from the beliefs of the predominant religion: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members (including a majority Utah officials setting the state’s liquor laws) are taught to abstain from alcohol.”

The alcohol industry is highly regulated in the United States, with almost all of that regulation being overseen by state agencies. In the case of Utah, that agency is the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS). Created by the Utah State Legislature in 1935, DABS’ is charged with “the responsibility of conducting, licensing and regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages in a manner and at prices which reasonably satisfy the public demand and protect the public interest, including the rights of citizens who do not wish to be involved with alcoholic beverages.”

I should point out that in writing this blog. I am not picking on poor old Utah. I could easily have written about the state of Indiana. On a recent trip there, I was aghast to discover, upon arriving at my hotel, that I could not buy a cold can of beer to take to my room to enjoy. You guessed it, Indiana law prohibited it. And it was not only my hotel where I was unable to purchase a cold beer to go. The same law applied to gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies across the state. A 2023 lawsuit, in which plaintiffs tried to have this law overturned, failed. At the time of writing, Indiana is the only state in the union where buying cold beer to-go is illegal. That could soon change, however. A bill currently making its way through the Tennessee legislature would see the same restrictions regarding cold beer sales coming into effect in that state. The hope is that, by passing such a bill, the number of alcohol-related automobile accidents will be reduced – who wants to drink a warm beer behind the wheel? Meanwhile, in my own state of Ohio, it is illegal to “represent, portray, or make any reference to Santa Claus” when advertising alcohol.