Stupid State Beer/Liquor Laws

Well, actually, Washington is pretty chill. Alcohol can be sold from 6am-2am 365 days a year, any sealable container can be used as a growler, and there are no ABV caps.

About the silliest thing is that bartenders/servers have to take a 3 hour course to get a servers permit to serve alcohol.

 

The dumbest thing I've encountered in CA is being told that they can't legally accept passports as proof of age for alcohol sales. Something about not having your height or weight listed, I don't know, dumb.

Well maybe they should extend that course to convenience store workers. I once had a gal in everson tell me they "couldn't accept out of state licenses". I had to give her the ol' Karen and " speak to the manager".

 

Well, sometimes it takes the Pony Express a while to get messages out to the county.

 

Love that aspect of OR and WA! Pre-COVID there was finally some movement in this direction in CA so long as the fluid volume was indicated by the container's manufacturer.

Sadly all that progress is on hold. I'd rather walk-in with clean stainless containers and conserve aluminum cans/crowlers, but I've yet to find a place in CA that'll fill a customer's container right now. I get how easy that stance is at present, but I dislike it on multiple levels.

 

Not too long ago I stated on a post that it was my favorite BA post of all time. Well, this one is my second favorite.

Anyway, hell, no joke...I not too long ago had intravenous ketamine for treatment of OCD. Yes, I tripped balls for an hour to treat OCD. Liquor laws in California? Yeah, I don’t know about that one.

Cheers.

 

I don't know where you shop in CA but ABC recognizes passports as acceptable form of identification (as of 2010), along with valid and unexpired state or some other federally issued identification. Basically as long as it's got a picture of you, your birthdate and an expiration date, it's valid. Source: https://www.abc.ca.gov/education/licensee-education/checking-identification/

To answer the question posted by the OP, I think a couple of the weirder ones I've encountered was all alcohol sold in Nevada has to be bagged... which is wild in a place like Vegas where gambling, marijuana and smoking indoors is legal and legal prostitution is not far out of reach.

The other one that got me, which has changed within the past few years thankfully, is that alcohol couldn't be sold in non-state run liquor stores in the state of Colorado. Blew my mind as a born-and-raised CA resident to not be able to just go to a King Soopers for beer... in a state known for its beer.

 

Not state, but a provincial liquor law in Ontario. If a brewery wants to brew a beer stronger than 11.9%, they also need a distillery license. There’s one brewery here doing Imperial Stouts at 11.9%, but not 0.1% stronger. Yet. We import stronger beers from other places. Samichlaus is one example that jumps immediately to mind.

 

I don't think it's a law in Maryland. Most places don't accept vertical ID's for liability reasons(if you are under 21 in Maryland, your ID picture is vertical) . Get yourself a new ID(another learners or a state issued ID card) and you will be good. Alcohol sales in Maryland are determined by counties. Most Eastern Shore counties permit beer and wine to be sold at any store(with a county license).

 

I’ve seen people at my store and no lie spend 60k on alcohol. We are at the NJ end of the bridge to philly. Famous people sometimes come in. Very large store. Only a handful of grocery I’ve seen sells. I’ve only seen 3 myself. No ounce limit. U can buy singles of anything. Cases of anything anywhere.

 

Could also get a state ID that’s a non driver. If that was the issue the state ID solved it

 

@ryebread98 Welcome to BeerAdvocate, Ryan! It's always nice to see young people like you join us! Gives me hope for the future of craft beer.

I sympathise with your plight. I constantly bitch about American liquor laws, but this may just take the cake. The directional orientation of the ID? Pointless.

When I moved to Maine, my California license soon expired, and I hadn't gotten my Maine DL yet. It always bothered me that most places wouldn't accept my expired driver's license (some people - always men - just didn't care...most did). During this period, I had to carry around my Arizona state ID I got when I was 12, because AZ IDs and DLs (at the time) didn't expire for like 35 years. Imagine a grown-ass man whipping out this 12 year old baby-faced desert ID card when buying alcohol....talk about embarrassing! I'd often be further embarrassed by managers being called over to study the ID and compare it to my face ("is that really him? Can we do that?"), while intensely referencing that little booklet with photos of all the state IDs - which mine wasn't in, because the damn thing was like 15 years old.

That's my own fault though.

I find the alcohol laws in this country to be a little...overkill. I can't drink from my front yard because it's visible from the road. I can't drink in my car even if it's just parked in the driveway (and God FORBID you start the engine to run the heater!), you can't drink at 18 but you can join infantry, beer in Oklahoma legally has to be served above room temperature (no, seriously...it's the law). Many of America's alcohol laws are simply archaic remnants of prohibition, and it has taken a long time for alcohol to lose its "taboo" association - something that hasn't fully happened yet.

Your situation is certainly a drag, and I hope the day you get your permanent, hOrIzOnTaL driver's license comes swift. In the mean time, perhaps it'll make you feel just a little better to check out a list of some other wonky US alcohol laws:

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/15-american-drinking-laws-that-make-absolutely-no-sense/

And once more, welcome to BA! Where we don't judge a beer drinker by the direction of his or her photo ID. We love verticals here!

 

Most of Wisconsin prohibits package/to-go sales of beer, wine and alcohol after 9:00 pm. Bars are open until 2:00am though. Never could understand the reason for the 9:00pm cut off.

 

NJ has a 10pm cut off for liquor. Ive seen beer to go sales at 1:30-2 am in a bar with a beer to go store in it.

 

Ok, I'll bite. WTF is a "vertical" license?

 

Probational. “Cinderella law” license. In NJ it is no driving between 11pm and 6am. No more than one? Unlicensed passenger in car at a time. I don’t remember myself.

a valid ID so Somebody must be lying to OP lol

 

I'm on the north end of the bible belt, so lots of silly alcohol laws. One local municipality finally permitted a brewery to open. That city is the world headquarters of a religion that's against drinking, with members of the church in the city council.

Otherwise, Kansas can't retail alcohol over 6% ABV in grocery stores. That recently changed from 3.2%. Some grocery stores have gotten around this by having their grocery portion on the Kansas side, and their liquor department on the Missouri side.

Arkansas is one of those states where you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. It also has a few dry counties still, including a popular county for climbing, camping, and hiking. Of course, the first retail spot on the other side of the state line or county line is a liquor store.

When I had my temporary license (piece of paper with a heat stamp) while waiting on my real ID to show up, a few establishments would not serve me alcohol. Both the liquor stores in town (at the time) knew the paper was heat sensitive, so they'd press it in between their hands to see if it reacted. As soon as it did, they sold me beer. Someone at those stores was smart enough to inform all their employees of this, so they don't miss out on sales. It was a college town after all, so you'd be losing out on all the first few weeks of business from people turning 21.

Missouri is also one of the handful of states that cannot retail Sam Adam's Utopia because of its alcohol content. Of course, I could leave the same stores with a bonded bottle of whiskey (50% ABV), so it's a logical law (sarcastic). In a strange twist of fate, I have to go to the state that just started allowing grocery stores to sell 6% beer to acquire Utopias (if I can even find it).

 

Thanx!

 

In most states if you are under 21, the license/id card is made in such a way that it is read with the short edge on top, so it is vertical, vs those over 21 who get the horizontal, where the long edge is on top. I remember I had a vertical license until I was 23 (moved states) because Wisconsin issues your full license at 19 (if you got your probationary license at 16). The sad thing is when they issue your full license it’s good for 8 years, so I could of had a vertical license until 27. The states I frequented didn’t care but I normally had to tell them “birthdate is the big red date” (this design of wisconsin license has since been retired).

 

In Maryland, all state ID's are printed vertically( top to bottom on the long side). When you hit 21, you get one that is printed horizontally across the long side. It was implemented to act as a deterrent to underage sales.