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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah grocery and convenience stores can sell higher alcohol content beer starting in November.
Gov. Gary Herbert signed SB132 Tuesday, which raises the allowable alcohol content by weight from 3.2 percent to 4 percent for beer sold in retail outlets. The bill came about as a compromise after a House committee rejected the original proposal to go 4.8 percent. The law takes effect Nov. 1.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, also creates an 11-member working group, including legislators, substance abuse workers, beer distributors and manufacturers, national brewers, and retailers.
The bill was among 66 Herbert signed into law Tuesday, including a law raising the minimum legal marriage age in Utah.
Lawmakers passed a watered-down version of HB234, sponsored by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, that would have raised the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18. Instead, the bill raises the legal marriage age to 16, while requiring 16- and 17-year-olds to marry only with permission of parents and a juvenile court judge.
Herbert has now signed 372 of the 574 bills the Legislature passed in its 45-day session that ended March 14. He has until April 3 to sign, veto or let bills go into law without his signature.
