Beer not just for Breakfast anymore

A post from 2012, but it’s still relevant. Though a bit less today as a number of laws have relaxed. And of course at the moment hardly anybody is flying and bars everywhere are being closed. But flash to happier times and the bars are open again…

“Drinking friendly state” the bartender answered my “a civilized state”. This was in response to buying a beer at the airport and being told I could bring it anywhere inside the airport. Wow a state that doesn’t seem to be still yearning for prohibition.

Coming from California where it’s not too bad to Michigan where the state has to wholesale all liquor sold in the state. Drives the prices up a bit but it kills variety. There are three or four kinds of most liquors available but that is a drop in the cocktail glass of what is available in say California. There are liquor stores in CA that sell almost nothing but Tequila. It’s not unusual for a well stocked store to have 30 to a hundred different brands and grades of a given type of liquor. This also impacts things like bitters and other essential cocktail ingredients. Is it possible to have a first class society if you can’t make a first class cocktail (legally).

There are those that would say yes but I’m not so sure. You don’t want a land of drunks but limiting variety doesn’t impact that. You can get cheap liquor in MI, just not a variety of GOOD liquor. A lack of innovation is a lack of innovation.

OK yes you can have a first rate society with out any liquor at all, but it’s an up hill battle.

A interesting side effect is that beer is really good in MI. There is a tone of craft breweries and a lot of home brewers and MI is the state that wrote the bill (not passed) that would have legalized home distilling.

The thing is that folks who like interesting cocktails are also the same kind of people who like interesting beer and interesting wine and good food. So if you have most of those people will find a workaround. They can buy in other states, and do, they can buy in Canada, and do, they can make their own, and do.

So the question is as a state do you want your citizens working their creativity to get around stupid laws or do you want to support them to use that creativity to boost the economy of your state.

On the base level if they are buying outside of your state your loosing money. If they are spending time getting around laws, that shouldn’t exist, they are not spending that time helping your state thrive.