In this episode we’ll be talking about the controversy surrounding Samuel Adams’ new beer release. Spoiler alert: it’s not entirely legal.

Last month, Samuel Adams announced its biennial launch of its limited-edition beer, Utopias. It hit shelves early October — about 13,000 bottles brewed in total.

Utopias is touted as “an extreme barrel aged beer that pushes the limits of barrel aging.” A delicious batch blend through a painstaking brew process, the end result is a specialty beer at a whopping 28.0% alcohol by volume (ABV).

To put it in perspective, craft beers average around 5-7% ABV, making Utopias about 4-5x stronger than your average suds.


On their website it states:

“We make Utopias to challenge the perception of what beer can be. This boundary bending, barrel-aged beer blurs the line between beer and fine spirit. At 28%, it’s the badass of our brewery. Its reputation puts it on every beer drinker’s bucket-list.”


And it’s because of this higher-than-normal alcohol content that makes this particular beer “not-so” legal — at least not in every state.


Broadly speaking, alcohol sales have a long and complicated history here in the United States. To make a long story short, quite a handful of states have legally capped the alcohol content in beer that’s purchased and sold within its borders. These local statutes are all well below Utopias’ 28% ABV. In fact, they don’t even come close.

Any sale or purchase of this specialty beer would thereby be illegal, with varying degrees of enforcement and punishment by state.

So you may be asking yourself by now, “Which states technically outlaw Samuel Adams’ Utopias?” Well, there are 15 states actually:

Alabama
Arkansas
Georgia
Idaho
Missouri
Mississippi
Montana
North Carolina
New Hampshire
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia


Even if you don’t live in one of these states, Utopias will still set you back about $240 for an oversized 25.4 ounce bottle. Now that’s a lot of beer mula!

Well worth it we’re sure. But we’re still waiting on Samuel Adams to send us a bottle to review (cough, cough, hint, hint).


At least with Utopias you’re getting a limited edition specialty beer, in a generous size bottle, and with huge fanfare. And needless to say, it certainly doesn’t skimp on the alcohol content either.

Usually less is more, but in this case more is more with Samuel Adams.


For more information on Samuel Adams’ Utopias, visit www.samueladams.com/utopias


Cheers to beers!


Next episode we’ll talk about 5 Craft Beer Trends for 2022.

Until next time, stay thirsty Libation Nation.


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