Kansas finally abandoned a Prohibition-era rule that restricted certain stores to only sell beer with up to 3.2% alcohol content, but the stronger beer that’s now allowed doesn’t contain much more alcohol.
Kansas this month ended its law dating back to the 1930s, allowing groceries and convenience stores to stock beer with up to 6% alcohol by volume. Beer drinkers are unlikely to notice a big difference because the outdated law measured alcohol by weight but alcohol is now measured by volume, the Wichita Eagle reported.
Chantel Fletchall, who handles brand registration for the Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said that a 3.2% beer measured by weight contains as much alcohol as a 4% beer measured by volume.
Popular light beers, such as Miller, Coors and Bud Light, are between 4.1% and 4.2% alcohol by volume. For a 12-ounce can of light beer that wouldn’t have been permitted under the old law, it might contain just seven to 14 more drops of alcohol than the 3.2 variety.
Regular beers from the same brands have 5% alcohol by volume, which is roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon more alcohol per 12-ounce can than the 3.2% varieties.
But the change still helps brewers, according to Michael Uhrich, chief economist for the national industry group Beer Institute.
(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)