Samuel Adams Made a Beer That's So Potent It's Illegal in 12 States

Source - Indiana, a land known for being a wee bit stingy with its beer-buying laws, surprisingly is not one of the states where its illegal to buy Samuel Adams Utopias.

Released only every two years, the "extreme barrel-aged beer" is so potent with its 28 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) ((really, super strong)), that it's illegal in 12 states. Those are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington, reports Fortune.

For relative scale, Bud Light is labeled at 4.2 ABV.

Additionally, due to the "extreme" barrel-aging — which Sam Adams says is "a multi-step, time-intensive and complex process" — and the rarity, that means it's gonna set you back at least $199. A bottle.


If you're lucky enough to taste Utopias, it's billed as "reminiscent of a rich vintage Port, old Cognac, or fine Sherry with notes of dark fruit, subtle sweetness, and a deep rich malty smoothness."


For those of you unfamiliar with Indiana's beer laws, here's a brief overview: You're basically not allowed to buy beer on Sundays unless it's from a microbrewery and even then you're restricted to two cases.  It's fucking stupid. There's something like 10 other states in the country that have it and they're all filled with bible thumpers and Mormons - real party animal types - so the fact that they're allowing the sale of a beer with 28 PERCENT alcohol is pretty out-of-the-box for us.  It really jams you up if you're an aspiring alcoholic such as myself, so any semblance of loosening the liquor laws in this state gets my full support.

But quite frankly, even though I don't think it should be illegal, I don't really understand selling this stuff in Indy.  This ain't the East Coast, people here aren't snooty as fuck.  Literally no one in this state is going to want to buy a single $200 bottle of beer, especially one that tastes like wine and cognac with hints of Sam Adams.  That sounds absolutely disgusting. And what the fuck is "dark fruit?"  Are they talking about blueberries and plums and shit?  All I can think of other than that is brown extra ripe bananas, and folks while I love myself a nice banana, banana beer fucking STINKS.  It pains me to say because the banana is such a delicious fruit, but alas it is true.

This seems like nothing more than a bullshit status beer.  It probably sucks, but pretentious dickheads are going to buy it so they can tell people they spent $200 on a single beer.  Meanwhile, while those are collecting dust on the shelves of Crown Liquors across Central Indiana, locals are gonna be spending the same amount for 10 cases of Bud Light.  Me personally, just give me a 15 spot of All Day IPAs and a pack of Marlboros and I'm happy as a clam.  I prefer to get my smokey undertones the old fashioned way...by inhaling them directly into my lungs roughly twenty times a day as god intended.