N.H. among 13 states to ban high-alcohol Boston brew

[thinkliberty]

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20091201-BIZ-912010357

It is banned in 13 states, including New Hampshire, and sure doesn't come in a six-pack.

The maker of Samuel Adams beer has released an updated version of its biennial beer Utopias — now the highest alcohol content beer on the market. At 27 percent alcohol by volume and $150 a bottle, the limited release of the brandy-colored Utopias comes as more brewers take advantage of improvements in science to boost potency and enhance taste.

"Just part of trying to push the envelope," said Jim Koch, founder and owner of the Boston Beer Company, the maker of Samuel Adams. "I'm pushing it beyond what the laws of these 13 states ever contemplated when they passed those laws decades ago."

The drink comes in a ceramic-and-copper bottle that resembles a tiny brew kettle. Thirteen states prohibit its sale because its alcohol content exceeds the legal limit for beer: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.

Since the 1990s, craft brewers like the Boston Beer Co. and the Delaware-based Dogfish Head have produced a number of "extreme beers" that challenge old notions of beer and the decades-old laws that have governed them.

By law, these specialty drinks still are classified as beer when they are based on fermented grain. And despite the hefty prices of the high-scale beer, brewers still have to pay the required nickel deposit on bottles....

[Pat McCotter]

http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=19663.msg313446#msg313446