More States Allowing High-Alcohol Beer

Beer with alcohol levels two or three times higher than your typical Budweiser or Coors are being sold in a growing number of states, USA Today reported Nov. 3.

North Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia are among the states that have raised or removed caps on beer’s alcohol content in recent years, and Mississippi and Iowa are considering similar legislation. The average beer has about 4.65 percent alcohol, but states like Alabama now allow beer with up to 13.9 percent alcohol, and brews sold in other states may have as much as 16 percent alcohol by volume.

Twenty states still have caps in place, however.

Consumers and brewers are among those who have led campaigns to get the caps modified or dropped in states like Iowa. Limiting alcohol makes it difficult to produce different styles and flavors of beer because brewers can’t add as much malt or sugar as they need, according to Paul Gatza of the Brewers Association.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO Chuck Hurley said that beer needs to be properly labeled so that consumers know how much alcohol they are consuming, while David Rosenbloom, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said the stronger beers could lead to more intoxication. “The faster you get drunk and the longer you stay drunk,” he said. “There’s no evidence that people will drink less, or fewer beers.”

Gatza said the higher-alcohol beers tend to be more expensive, which could limit consumption.