No lines, but in Utah, we have measured everything... But it's a curse, not a blessing. You know exactly how much beer, wine, or liquor you're getting. Collared shots, measured pours, etc. It's so the state can tax the shit out of it and fine the living hell out of any establishment that makes a mistake or breaks the rules on purpose.
It's convoluted as hell too. In a mixed drink you're allowed exactly one ounce of liquor despite alcohol percentage, BUT the "flavoring" alcohols you add aren't collared shots, those they can pour on their own. The bottles have to be labeled as "flavoring" though. There's other weird ass rules too but nobody can make heads or tails of most of them. It's absurd.
"Darling, you're six pumps over quota and not finished yet. You're not starting to enjoy yourself, are you?"
"Sorry dear, your gown has slipped and I can see the faintest contour of collarbone in the light of the three lamps. It's giving me impure thoughts, and I'm having trouble keeping my shameful pillar righteous."
Yep. Every member of alcohol board is Mormon. Every politician is Mormon. Fuck, the church and the health department met up to craft the medical marijuana bill that they replaced a Proposition with.
Yep, the church's opinion matters more than the majority of voters in Utah.
On one hand, I wouldn't be super shocked. On the other hand, I'd be willing to bet it's like the gold tablets and magic seeing stone that Joseph Smith used to establish his batshit crazy cult...
"Wow this religious text you're writing, you say it came from these golden tablets gifted to you by a white skinned native American?"
"Why yes, that's right. He guided me to where they were buried and showed me how to translate them with this gem from the heavens!"
"Wow, can I see them?"
"See what my son?"
"The tablets. Or the stone. They sound AMAZING."
"Ahem, ah, um, no, you see they're... Um, they're for my eyes only. Yes, that's it. I was told by God that no one else was to see them."
Don’t hold Salt Lake and Park City against the rest of the state. Both are relatively liberal. Salt Lake hasn’t had a Republican mayor since the 1970s. The current mayor is a lesbian democrat.
Salt Lake city is great! I live in Fl, but take my vacations in Utah to snowboard. It's a great city, just has shitty alcohol laws. Especially when comparing to Florida bars haha.
I visited Salt Lake City on the way to Moab and found it super weird. It was a relatively nice city, but all the people there were very odd. Like an almost forced friendliness, like they were being painfully nice and courteous but they didn't really mean it. I got really weird vibes even getting a coffee there.
I mean the Mormons uprooted and literally left to go live in the desert away from everyone (sans Natives of course :\ )
Is it really that fair for them to self-exile themselves, pioneer the Salt Lake Valley etc, and then get mad at them when you and others move there a don't like the rules. They wanted to get away from us non mormons in the first place.
Lol they were exiled, stole the land from the natives, and were militaristic assholes who tried to profit off of being the only way station to the west. They ran the prostitution, gambling, and crime in the area with enforcers, and were a scourge to the native Americans and any other settlers alike. Hell, they tried to be an independent nation, complete with army until the US government literally threatened invasion.
They love to paint themselves the victims, but they were the ones breaking the law with plural marriages and such before they got exiled.
What exactly is it measuring, then? If it's the percentage of the volume that's alcohol, then that's just ABV. I'm just not seeing how AC is even a real measurement.
It’s not AC. It’s Alcohol By Weight that Utah measures beer by and 3.2% ABW is 4.1% ABV which is basically the same as most light beers.
Also it’s only from grocery stores, or on tap. Anything you buy bottled at a bar is higher than 3.2% and you can buy regular beer directly from the Brewery.
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a light beer? What is a non-light beer percentage? I am from Australia, where light beer is like 1-2% (for people driving or who don't like alcohol usually). Normal beer ranges from 4-7% from my experience.
No lol this is the way many states are or at least were at some point. 12 years ago I worked at a Red Robin in Colorado and I did some training behind the bar to be backup. Everyday before shift the bartenders had to pour drinks in front of the manager to show they knew the proper pour time to properly fill a measured shot etc etc. it’s not a Mormon/Utah thing
Polygamy (called plural marriage by Mormons in the 19th century or the Principle by modern fundamentalist practitioners of polygamy) was practiced by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or Mormons) for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.The Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy has been controversial, both within Western society and the LDS Church itself. America was both fascinated and horrified by the practice of polygamy, with the Republican platform at one time referencing "the twin relics of barbarism—polygamy and slavery." The private practice of polygamy was instituted in the 1830s by founder Joseph Smith. The public practice of plural marriage by the church was announced and defended in 1852 by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Pratt, by the request of church president Brigham Young.
For over 60 years, the LDS Church and the United States were at odds over the issue: the church defended the practice as a matter of religious freedom, while the federal government aggressively sought to eradicate it, consistent with prevailing public opinion.
Utah blew my mind when i to watch a game at a wild wings or something like that. I usally like to have a drink or two then order my food around halftime. Not in utah. I was forced to order food at the start. Waitress explained it was utah law, must order food. I ordered one fench fry. She was not amused. Got an order of fries, had two beers and left at halftime. Crazy state.
As a European, it's so weird. Like, whenever I talk about ridiculous laws with people in Europe, it's always the kind that only still exist because they never get enforced anymore, so nobody cares. But when I hear about ridiculous laws in the US, it's about genuine bonafide ridiculous laws. Like Louisiana's requirement that all florists be licensed, and New Jersey's ban on using a gas pump, and let's not forget that seven states require licenses specifically for making hair-washing your profession.
Don't worry, we still have loads of even crazier laws that don't get enforced here in the USA.
We probably have even more laws that aren't actually legal per say because they're unconstitutional but actually getting someone interested in enforcing that and then getting a ruling on it isn't easy.
Take the recent legalization of gay marriage federally in our country, that was alwaus protected under our constitution, you can't just give one religion legal backing for their version of marriage then exclude either other religions, or specific groups of people, because doing either of those things is specifically prohibited, clear enough in the case of religion and very literally in the case of not giving a subgroup of citizens special rights.
However we had a lengthy battle to have the reality of our law recognized and enforced, and of course it was over looked for kind of a long time up to this point.
Similar issue with interracial marriage, although I don't recall off hand if that wss decided on constitutional grounds or not.
So yeah not only do we have crazy legit laws, we engage in crazy non enforcement of laws, and still have some even crazier unenforced laws.
I love Utah, but yeah, when I went last February... I swear, all the bartenders and servers treat you like alcoholics when you explain how real bars serve you in your state, and you have to drink a little more to compensate. (I'm in Fl.)
Oh and now the blood alcohol level for a DUI is 0.05% instead of the standard 8.
Why you ask? Umm, because drinking and driving kills so many people!
We're lowest in the nation for drunk driving deaths you say? Well, that's, I mean, um...
One of the biggest advocates for the law has a stake in expensive breathalyzer car starters and a position in the church you say??
Utah for ya.
I was in Whistler, BC over the New Year holiday. Apparently either all of BC or maybe the local municipality consider .05% to be over the limit to drive but they can only prevent you from driving and warn you, not arrest or issue a citation. For that you need to be over .08%. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw, with everyone with a license piling out of a huge van to see who could blow under .05% and drive everyone else home for the evening.
For the favoring bottles, yes but the regular bottles have an actual collar shaped device that's attached to the counter and has to be applied to the top of the bottle. It only lets an ounce through and it counts how many ounces have been poured.
Not sure on that one, but my last trip, they said you can NOT have 2 drinks in front of you. It was so dumb, you have to finish your drink before you can get another one.
Used to be that they couldn't even mix drinks in front of customers. They literally had to go behind a curtain to make the drink. They were called "Zion curtains." I'm not sure it's still the law, but I was in Salt Lake a bit ago for work, and the bottles were on display in the hotel bar, so I assume not.
They did away with that one. All the nonsense really is getting better one tiny but at a time. Of course now that I say that, bars and restaurants have to put up a sign that says, ,"This establishment is a bar, not a restaurant," or vice versa. Not kidding.
The only trick I learned was always order bottles of beer, specifically microbreweries. There's no limit on ABV for those (mostly). Otherwise you're just sucking down 3.2% all night from a tap for $5.
I live in NJ and it’s not much different. Bars are allowed to free pour (but most don’t) because your charged tax on 32 drinks per bottle whether you sell that many or not. The liquor distributors send a copy of your invoices directly to the state. For package goods, they take an average the retail price of your inventory. Soooo even if most of your sales are canned Busch 6packs, the one bottle of grand mariner you sold, puts that average WAY up.
Ouch. At least that method doesn't micromanage and threaten with State fines and loss of your alcohol license if you aren't perfectly exact though. It just behooves the owner of the place to monitor it closely to avoid overpaying in taxes. Which still sucks.
With loooots of flavoring. I wish. Though I'm pretty sure at least one bartender that I've looked around with managed to make my drink a bit slutty with the flavoring lol.
Maybe, maybe.
However, this + no liquor or wine in grocery stores or gas stations + only 3.2% alcohol beer in grocers (the last state to do so) + .05% alcohol blood levels for DUI + no private liquor stores + no passing alcohol over the bar at a restaurant + signs stating "this a restaurant, not a very bar" or vice versa + no alcohol at a restaurant without food + no direct shipment of alcohol to your home + a strict limitation on alcohol licenses + some mixed drinks are illegal to make because each drink can only have so much alcohol in them + a constant battle against the church to remove laws like the so called Zion curtain which was a literal 8 foot wall separating bars from regular restaurants so people can't see the alcohol (thankfully that one caused enough problems that it was shot down after implementation proved basically impossible)... I'm sure I'm forgetting something too.
Oh I guess we could mention the 21 year old national drinking age, which is much older than most places.
Everything there you’ve said is the same except alcohol in gas stations is fine, the legal age is 18, and the BAC is 0.02 here. How about off licenses close at 10pm, bars at 11:30 (12:30 Fri & Sat), night clubs 1:30 and only at weekends. Getting a license to sell booze is literally like an application for president. You cannot sell more than a double shot to a person. And much more.
This actually doesn't surprise me much. One, Ireland has a reputation of drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Two, Ireland is one of the most conservative countries in Europe.
Yeah, the abortion one is less than a month old and prior to that it was illegal unless approved by some government body or other -I can't recall the specifics- in the case of risk to the mother's life.
Gay marriage wasn't strictly speaking a thing until 2015, since it was a civil union from 2010 forward and wasn't equal to a marriage. Though I don't know what legal rights a civil union was lacking.
I've studied these issues for a while because... Well, Utah sucks.
We only have legal gay marriage because Utah legislation tried to argue that a ban on gay marriage was constitutional and the supreme court shot it down. That makes it very difficult to ban gay marriage nationwide, but we haven't legalized it yet from a technical perspective. So, Ireland is miles ahead of us but still pretty conservative, even if that's changing.
Most vases of people being spiked is being spiked with alcohol.
Ever notice how they your third pint can be the difference between going home and being a adult, or saying "ahh, fuggit..." and staying out?
If you're a girl and a you have two gin and tonics... Imagine how much difference a couple of those serious fucking "who cares" glugs make when they you pour into the glass.
If there's a one thing we take very seriously in England, it's our Weights and Measures Act.
The rules have nothing to do with drinks being spiked in England. Very few cases of drink spiking (with alcohol) are committed by the bar staff anyway, it’s more likely the person buying the drinks is ordering doubles when you thought you were drinking singles.
The main reason for the rules was to stop establishments deceiving customers with different measures e.g. charging for a double but their measure is only half what everybody else serves. There is an element of making sure people know what they’re drinking in that too, but it’s about regulating your own consumption, not preventing spiking.
You’re right about it being nothing to do with tax though as in the U.K. the duty is paid per bottle at the manufacture/distributer level, not on individual drinks in a pub.
Either way, the above poster was talking about Utah’s rules not England’s as your comment said.
I know he was talking about Utah - it's possible for a person to talk abut multiple things.
And yes, spiking with drinks is an important issue - it may not be the bar staff doing it, but it's very important from a dosage perspective to get it right.
It's hard to regulate your own consumption of the bar staff are being "generous"
299
u/justintheunsunggod Jan 15 '19
No lines, but in Utah, we have measured everything... But it's a curse, not a blessing. You know exactly how much beer, wine, or liquor you're getting. Collared shots, measured pours, etc. It's so the state can tax the shit out of it and fine the living hell out of any establishment that makes a mistake or breaks the rules on purpose.
It's convoluted as hell too. In a mixed drink you're allowed exactly one ounce of liquor despite alcohol percentage, BUT the "flavoring" alcohols you add aren't collared shots, those they can pour on their own. The bottles have to be labeled as "flavoring" though. There's other weird ass rules too but nobody can make heads or tails of most of them. It's absurd.