Booze in the great state of Pennsyltucky
 

Some of you may recall a thread about booze purchases in Pennsylvania--well you'll love this one! I received the standard brochure from our state senator a few days back. It was the usual stuff explaining what a wonderful job she was doing and how fabulously she was representing her darling constituents in Harrisburg. One of the pieces of legislation she worked on which passed & was signed now allows Pennsylvanians to buy wine via the Internet or other mail order, something which was previously illegal!! WOW!! shocking! Oops, I read it a second time. The wine is supposed to be delivered to "a convenient state liquor store nearby" which will then allow you to pick it up. Oh, the vendor you buy from has to be licensed by Pennsylvania, and needless to say no sales of wines that are carried by state-run stores is allowed. If you'd like a laugh, read the whole thing.


In other news, there is a brandy-brand new fancy state store in downtown Philadelphia. It's supposed to stifle everybody's desire to buy liquor in more liberal states nearby. I'd love to hear from anybody who's visited it (I probably won't be in that neighborhood for a while) and can tell us what it's like. Maybe even a job for Tony, remembering the wine forum he used to host in the olden days. :beer:

(Oh, and I'm not going to debate the whole issue of federalism vs. states' rights. All I'm going to say is, people who think it's self-evident that moving power from the federal government back to the states is a Good Thing(tm) have never actually dealt with a state government.)

(edited to clean up a couple typos & how could I forget to add the beer smilie?????)

The PA liquor laws have befuddled me for years. Until they okayed it not too long ago, I went through hell trying to get Woodchuck cider in this state.

Question: Do the prohibitions on importation of liquor apply to empties, as well? There is an old whiskey distillery in Scotland (closed for close to 20 years now) that bears my family name, and I'd love to dig up a bottle (empty or otherwise) just for the novelty of it. Someone's liable to put an empty bottle up on eBay as a collector's item sooner or later; am I legally allowed to buy such a thing?

My instinct it to say, of course it doesn't apply to empties.. but the law is so ridiculous, counterintuitive, and just plain stupid that I wouldn't be surprised if there were something against it.

You can't force me to go to a "state store" (Pennsylvania term for state-owned store where liquor is sold). I buy all my wine in NJ, only because I want to thumb my nose at the state government.

I wasn't suggesting you actually sully yourself by BUYING something! :cool: Actually I drink so little it's not worth my trouble to drive to NJ from where I live, but I had to put my clarinets in to be overhauled, and I took them to a guy in Wilmington. There are a couple liquor stores on the way, so I may just go ahead & see if there's anything I want to pick up when I go get my clarinets back.

A previous neighbor used to have packages delivered to his address with a name like a liquor store. I think he used that to sucker out-of-state companies into sending booze to him, but I never stole a package to find out.

I think I'll still be crossing the border for the liquor.

Living on the NY/PA border means I can get cheap smokes in PA and liquor in NY. The odd thing is, I have heard that you can get grain alcohol in PA, which doesn't make sense given the rest of the regulation. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

You can buy grain alcohol at the State Store. Why doesn't that make sense?

CLEAR SPRING GRAIN ALCOHOL - 190 PROOF (190.00pf) 1.75 L $29.99
EVERCLEAR GRAIN ALCOHOL - 190 PROOF (190.00pf) 750 ML $13.99

It doesn't make sense that you can only buy liquor from a state run store but then that store is selling nearly pure alcohol. any schumk can get a liquor permit here but no grain alcohol...

Oh! You're saying the NY law makes no sense.

That's OK, from what I hear the NY gun laws don't make any sense either. Especially NYC.

Either way, I'll be honest laws in general don't make much sense to me... As for the guns thats why I keep the howitzer in Montana ;)



[Ed. stupid typos....]

Grain alcohol sales in State Stores were banned a few years ago in response to a few incidents at Penn. Were they quietly lifted?

(nothing wrong with pure grain anyway; works great for up-proofing other liquor if you need it to burn, for instance)

Those prices were from the LCB website. I suppose grain might possibly be available only by special direct order, as opposed to off-the-shelf in the State Store. I just don't get into the Stae Store that often; I know I've seen grain there, but that could have been several years ago.

They sell Everclear at the store up the street from my house.

Rho picked up the newest Wines and Spirits Quarterly last week.

This killed me:

"Retail prices include Federal Tax and an 18-percent Pennsylvania Emergency State Tax."

What the FUCK?! What emergency? I knew the prices were higher here of course, but at least now I know why the shit is so damned expensive here.

UT, next time you head over to NJ, you look me up. We'll take a picture as we buy our spirits and flip off the PA side of the Delaware. :)