In Utah, liquor authorities who have long been aligned with the Mormon patriarchs who more or less run everything in the state have poured thousands of gallons of drinkable beer down the drain — no, literally– after a change in state law allowed higher-alcohol beer.
Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control destroyed roughly $18,000 worth of beer in a single day on Friday, AP reports:
Authorities say they were legally required to dump the beer from state-owned liquor stores because a new law allowed those beers to be sold in private stores instead.
Utah had long prohibited grocery and convenience stores from selling beer stronger than 4% alcohol by volume. Everything else was sold at state liquor stores.
The law effective Oct. 31 increased that limit to 5%. Because the state-owned stores can’t stock anything available on the open market, officials discounted beers between 4% and 5% before Halloween, then threw away everything that was left.
The 275 cases of bottles and cans were recycled, they say.
Read More: Utah tosses thousands of gallons of beer after law change [apnews.com]
