Colorado beer advocates suffer setback
By Noah Davis • Mar 12th, 2009 • Category: Beer News
Last night, the movement to legalize the sale of full-strength beer in Colorado grocery and convenience stores ran into a roadblock when state legislature voted to overturn House Bill 1192, “which would have ended the post-Prohibition practice of allowing those two kinds of stores to sell only reduced-strength beer.”
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, failed by a 7-4 vote.
The fight isn’t over, however. “I think that we opened the can of worms last year, unfortunately, and I think we’re going to be back visiting this again,” Rep. Sara Gagliardi, D-Arvada told the Denver Business Journal.
If you live in Colorado, you can write your representative in support of the Bill. If you don’t, you can drink your full-strength beer and send your thoughts towards the Rocky Mountains.
I live in Colorado and most fans of real beer are actually against this bill. The craft breweries that make up the CO Brewer’s Association are against it. The fear is that grocery stores won’t carry local/craft beer which will cause liquor stores that do stock craft beer to lose sales and go out of business, thus making craft beer less available.
Believe me, we have no problem drinking high quality full strength beer here.
Thanks for the clarification, Jeff. Always good to hear from a real beer fan.
I love Bristol and Tommy Knockers of the world. I just can’t see Wal Mart and Loaf N’ Jug (Kroger) would carry them. I shop @ Argonaut. That Jewish family that owns the store know what they are doing. The Argonaut gotta be one the cheapest places I’ve ever shopped at across the country. I love these mega liquor stores we have in Denver. They are interesting and fun. When I lived in Oreong, the state owned the hard liquor and liquor stores only carried hard As only. No selection….very very expensive. Grocery stores sell wine and beer but not too many with decent selections. And believe me, the beers and wines are cheaper in Denver than in Portland. Safeways and Freddies (Koreger) charge quite a bit. Costco is pretty cheap but they have no selections to speak of. For God sake, let the little guys have some breathing room (micro brew or liquor stores). It’s worth it to have diversity like we have in Denver vs. Portland that I lived in.