What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[Anomalocaris]

When it comes to unique beverages, we take the cake here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Because we're the ONLY state that still sells this drink.  All 49 other states have gotten rid of it. Heck, even the conservative state of Utah got rid of its requirement to sell this stuff back in 2020.

The mystery beverage I'm talking about is something called 3.2 beer-- beer that has an alcohol-by-volume percentage of only 3.2-- well below the alcohol content contained in most beers these days. "3.2 Beer" or "Near Beer," as it's jokingly been referred to over the years, is the only beer that's still legal for grocery and convenience stores to sell here in Minnesota.

So how did 3.2 beer even become a thing? According to this TwinCities.com story, it dates back to Prohibition-- when selling and possessing any alcohol was illegal. Minnesota's legislature tried to get around the federal law by passing its own state law that said any beverage with an alcohol percentage of 3.2 or lower wasn't really an alcoholic beverage-- and thus could still be legally sold.


(source)

3.2 remains the standard alcohol content of the beer supplied by the US armed forces.