Can you buy beer after 9pm? What are the liquor laws in your state?

Can't buy alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Liquor sales were controlled by the state until a little over a year ago

Can't buy anything over 151-proof (People get Everclear from Oregon)

Can't drink in public

Can drink in a car only if you're in a passenger seat and the car is turned off

If you want a good long laugh, check out the laws in Utah. Mormons don't like alcohol and the corresponding results are absolutely absurd, like the fabled "zion curtain", a physical barrier so that people in bars can't actually see their drinks being made. (The horror! "Look honey, the bartender is mixing a drink! It's ungodly.")

Until a few years ago in Utah, if you ordered a mixed drink in a hotel, you had to drink it in the bar - you could NOT take it up to your room. If you ordered that same drink via room service, some hotel dude would show up at your room *with a blender* to mix it then and there. And there is some weird limit on the level of alcohol in draft beer in Utah - max 3.2%, I think, or else you have to buy it in a state store. Which are closed on Sundays. And on any days that voting booths are opened. Because there's a huge problem with drunk voters...

State control of alcohol still prevails in 18 states. It's ridiculous in places like Pennsylvania... the state store is basically a state-sponsored monopoly. Remember, "State's Rights" doesn't always mean more rights, sometimes it simply means State Control.

Meanwhile, here in California, I can buy any alcohol with any ABV at any time I like - except in bars, where last call is at 2:00am.

America is a nation which still has laws strongly influenced by its Puritan forefathers... for better or for worse.

VT: can't buy after midnight until six AM in a store. Bars til 2AM.

NM: not quite 100% on everything but I know you can't buy booze before noon on Sunday.

cheese please wrote:

Meanwhile, here in California, I can buy any alcohol with any ABV at any time I like - except in bars, where last call is at 2:00am.

I don't think that's true unless it's a recent development. About a year ago I went into a 24-hour grocery store after having left the bar, in search of more alcohol. Bottle of wine in hand, I hadn't even made my way to the checkout line when a voice on the intercom informed me that it was now 2am and all alcohol sales were prohibited until such-and-such time.

It's better here, but there's still bullshit.

In my part of Maryland there generally are no beer and wine sales at grocery stores. However, each chain can designate a single store in the county where they can sell those items. Such a strange law.

I was in New York State (Dutchess County) recently and wanted to buy beer and vodka. The beer had to be purchased at a grocery store and the vodka at a package store. Apparently package stores aren't allowed to sell beer.

Massachusetts is lightening up. The Commonwealth now allows Sunday sales (about 5 years ago enacted) and I heard on my sports radio yesterday that they will now allow beer sales on Sunday to begin at 10am, two hours earlier than previously, which is great for us looking to get really tanked before 1pm Patriots games and drank all our beer the Saturday before.

scxc wrote:

Massachusetts is lightening up. The Commonwealth now allows Sunday sales (about 5 years ago enacted) and I heard on my sports radio yesterday that they will now allow beer sales on Sunday to begin at 10am, two hours earlier than previously, which is great for us looking to get really tanked before 1pm Patriots games and drank all our beer the Saturday before.

Rather poor resource management, Pats Fan.

Can buy beer at any time, in any place, at any age (not officially of course but nobody cares), and can drink it anywhere (again, officially it is prohibited in certain city parks but nobody really cares).

And it's the cheapest drink you can buy (water in grocery stores is cheaper but in pubs beer is still the cheapest option)

I'm of course not from North America thankfully

- No Sunday liquor sales except in restaurants, stadiums, etc.

- No cold beer sales by grocery/convenience stores, gas stations, etc.

Massachussetts also has the "no happy hour" rule. No restaurants can advertise any form of a happy hour special, i.e. Two for ones at Chilis. This also bums me out because my favorite hotel chain, Hilton Embassy suites, is not allowed to do the Managers reception from 5:30-7:30 pm, aka free booze.

Until a few years ago, Colorado had blue laws. No Sunday liquor sales or 5% beer sales. You could buy beer at the grocery store but it was 3.2% only.

Wyoming is crazy. They have drive-thru bars ! You can drive up to the window and order a cocktail in a to-go cup. No open container laws. It is legal to drink while driving, you just can't drive drunk.

Utah is just bizarre. Most bars are private clubs that you need a sponsor to get in - but its not that hard to find one. Restaurants that don't serve alcohol allow you to bring your own bottle and you order a mixer and pour your own drinks. The catch is, you can't leave with your bottle - you have to finish it or leave it at your table unfinished. The other odd thing is that in restaurants where they do serve alcohol, you have to order food or no alcohol sale. And, you have to finish your drink before they will set your next one on the table.

Bunghole Liqours wrote:

Texas has drive through liquor stores?

I grew up in Texas and never saw this.

the only state's where I saw drive through liquor stores I think was Indiana. At least I think it was indiana. Somewhere where I was a lot for track and field at Cornell. It might have been florida?

klitton_the_real_1 wrote:

In my part of Maryland there generally are no beer and wine sales at grocery stores. However, each chain can designate a single store in the county where they can sell those items. Such a strange law.

Having moved to Maryland, what I really like is you can go into a bar and buy alcohol to go. You want a six pack or bottle of wine and want to take it out - go ahead.

In terms of beer and wine, I haven't seen it available at any grocery stores. I think once you have laws like that, it's only fair to keep them otherwise everyone will stop going to the liquor/beer stores and get them all at the grocery stores.

It may be a 'dumb' law in today's world but changing the rules is unfair.

rojo wrote:

Bunghole Liqours wrote:

Texas has drive through liquor stores?

I grew up in Texas and never saw this.

the only state's where I saw drive through liquor stores I think was Indiana. At least I think it was indiana. Somewhere where I was a lot for track and field at Cornell. It might have been florida?

That was not IN Rojo. As mentioned above, IN has silly laws. I live near the KY border and can drive across the state line and buy beer at a drive thru on Sundays.

You cannot buy cold beer in a gas station and cannot buy cold sodas in a beer store. STUPID.

OH also has drive thru beer stores. I went to one with a buddy that wasn't a drive UP but and actual drive THRU. Huge garage door where you drive into a wharehouse style beer store and they load your order in the back of your truck or car.

That was pretty cool.

This is how WE jack the house. wrote:

cheese please wrote:

Meanwhile, here in California, I can buy any alcohol with any ABV at any time I like - except in bars, where last call is at 2:00am.

I don't think that's true unless it's a recent development.

You are correct and I was mistaken. I've never tried to buy alcohol after 2:00am in a grocery store :) but I looked it up after I saw your post and apparently it's not legal to sell any alcohol in CA between the hours of 2 and 6 a.m.

In South Carolina it seems all the liquor stores close by 7 pm and aren't open at all on Sunday. Most restaurants don't serve on Sundays.

You can buy beer and wine Monday to Saturday in grocery stores. I like that you can buy single cans to go - I'm not a big drinker. Seems to be a decent selection of specialty beers imported from other states/countries.

I grew up in PA and you could only buy liquor and wine at the state-run store and they closed at 5 pm. There were some restaurants/bars that sold beer to go by the six pack but if you wanted a case you had to go to a "distributor" which was basically a beer warehouse. It seemed difficult to find anything beyond the corporate ales.

I find attitudes to alcohol in the US quite strange.

How it can be right that you are old enough to die serving your country in a foreign war, have children of your own, be executed by the state, sell your internet start up for millions .... But still be too young to have a beer.

rojo wrote:

Bunghole Liqours wrote:

Texas has drive through liquor stores?

I grew up in Texas and never saw this.

the only state's where I saw drive through liquor stores I think was Indiana. At least I think it was indiana. Somewhere where I was a lot for track and field at Cornell. It might have been florida?

New Orleans is famous for drive through Daiquiri shops. But the lid is sealed with tape and no straw inserted to avoid breaking open container laws, as if a straw and a piece of tape ever stopped anyone from imbibing.