Colorado House Committee Advances Low-Strength Beer Measure

The Senate bill would let restaurants, breweries and bars sell low-strength beer.

May 02, 2011

DENVER - After killing two other bills that would have expanded the sales of beer and wine, the Colorado House Business and Economic Development Committee approved a proposal that would allow restaurants, bars and breweries to sell low-strength beer, the Denver Business Journal reports. The other two measures would have let convenience and grocery stores stock full-strength beer.

Sponsored by state Senators Betty Boyd and Jean White, Senate Bill 60 sought to formalize what restaurants had been doing in practice€"selling beer with less than 4 percent alcohol by volume€"despite a state law prohibiting this. Representative Andy Kerr, a cosponsor of the bill in the House, said, "The sooner we take care of it, the sooner restaurants won€™t have to worry about whether they€™re breaking the law."

Pete Meersman, president/CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, approved of the bill debate being put off until the other two measures had been decided. "There was an issue that seemed to be larger than ours that people seemed to discuss before," he said. "And we got out of the way with a strategy that we need to let the storm clouds pass."

The Colorado House committee approved the bill without comments or testimony. The measure will soon be heard by the full state House.

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