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Thread: Who remembers 3.2%?

  1. #1
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    Who remembers 3.2%?

    My brother just sent me an email congratulating the Cavs for breaking the 52 year slump.
    He mentioned being in a bar in 1964, drinking 3.2% Stroh's beer watching the Browns win the football title.(pre-Super Bowl)

    Got me thinking about how things get turned around .

    Back when I was 18, and all I could buy here in Ohio was "low powered" or 3.2 -- beer that was 3.2% ABV. & how we all complained about it.

    Now, I drink the same thing, only these days it's called "Light" beer .
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
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  2. #2
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    Remember it well....it was all we could (legally) drink when I was in college (until we turned 21). Lawmakers thought no one could drink enough 3.2 beer to get buzzed.....they were wrong (never give a college student that kind of challenge...)

    As far as Light vs. 3.2....let's just say Marketers are smarter than lawmakers (not that that's setting a high bar).

  3. #3
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    3.2 is still available here in Minnesota. In fact, if its Sunday that's all you can buy at a store. They don't trust us to buy anything stronger than that on Sunday. Go to a bar though and you can still get strong beer on a Sunday.

  4. #4
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    Sure. Even though I was not a big beer consumer, occasionally on a Sunday when the need arose we would hop across the border to Oklahoma where 3.2 was available. Arkansas didn't and still does not allow beer sales on Sunday. No idea if oklahoma laws at the time just restricted Sunday sales to 3.2 or if that was all that was available all the time. I did not know that "lite" beers were lower in alcohol content. Thought it was just fewer calories.
    Last edited by Michael Weber; 06-21-2016 at 10:08 AM.
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  5. #5
    I grew up with the Browns and 3.2 Carlings Black Label. "hey Mabel" I'm from Dayton.
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  6. #6
    We had a couple of restaurants in this town that did big business with 3.2 . They were like kindergartens with drill sargents. Get a little loud,etc and you were suspended. One of them had go go dancers. The old married proprietor paid a lot of attention to them.
    Last edited by Keith Outten; 06-21-2016 at 1:27 PM.

  7. #7
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    I grew up in California and found out later that each state had its own laws about alcohol content and labeling.

    A friend of mine's mother was dating a distributor. He was importing German beers and before they could get new labels printed they had to use a marker to cover the word beer and write in ale.

    He explained the law in California, at the time, had a different designation for the various alcohol content of malt brewed beverages.

    There was beer, ale, malt liquor, stout malt and probably a few others. I likely got it mixed up since it has been almost 50 years ago. I am not sure if California law has changed or not.

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  8. #8
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    There were states in the 60's where the only beer you could buy was 3.2%. Georgia, IIRC, when I was stationed there only sold 3.2% beer.

    Recently at my local watering hole, the owner was shocked when I told her that my favorite Scotch ale could well have less alcohol content than the Bud Light she was pouring for another customer. The other bartender went online. According to him, my Scotch ale was 4.3% and the Bud Light was 5.0%
    Ken

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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Weber View Post
    Sure. Even though I was not a big beer consumer, occasionally on a Sunday when the need arose we would hop across the border to Oklahoma where 3.2 was available. Arkansas didn't and still does not allow beer sales on Sunday. No idea if oklahoma laws at the time just restricted Sunday sales to 3.2 or if that was all that was available all the time. I did not know that "lite" beers were lower in alcohol content. Thought it was just fewer calories.
    A lot of the calories in beer come from the alcohol - 7 calories per gram of alcohol and many beers (12 ozs of 5% beer) have 14 grams of alcohol so about 98 calories per beer just from the alcohol.

    Most regular beers contain about 150 calories total. So 2/3 of the calories come from the alcohol.

    Mike

    [Lite beer is about 4.2% alcohol and has reduced calories from carbs.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 06-21-2016 at 2:50 PM.
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  10. #10
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    Three-two beer takes me back to technical training at Lowry AFB, Colorado in 1978-79. You could buy it from vending machines in the dormitory.
    Brett
    Peters Creek, Alaska

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  11. #11
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    I remember when I was stationed at Fort Mcclellan we went to bar that was bring your own bottle

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    I remember when I was stationed at Fort Mcclellan we went to bar that was bring your own bottle
    Down in South Carolina, in Charleston, you had the nodder. If you "forgot" to bring a bottle, The bar tender asked this guy if it was all right to use "his" bottle for your drink. He just set there and nodded.
    This was back in the early 60's in my early Navy days.

  13. #13
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    I grew up near Dayton Ohio.3.2 beer was what we started drinking at 16 (this is back in the 1950s). By the time we turned 18 we had been going into the bars for such a long time that they started serving us high beer and mixed drinks. Back then nobody cared. Oh, and it was Schoenling, Hudepohl and Burger.
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  14. #14
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    In Kansas during the seventies and eighties you could purchase 3.2% beer at an 18+ club or a convenience store. Liquor stores and private bars had 5.0 beer and the age requirement was 21. Someone once said one was measured by weight and the other volume, but we were young and that was likely incorrect.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Fitzgerald View Post
    There were states in the 60's where the only beer you could buy was 3.2%. Georgia, IIRC, when I was stationed there only sold 3.2% beer.
    IIRC, that was the case in California. I moved to NM in '76 and discovered 5% beer for the first time. I wasn't a big beer drinker.
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