"North Carolina is one of six states that have an alcohol limit on beer as low as 6 percent, though a handful of other states don't allow grocery stores to sell standard beer. The current limit has been on the books since 1935." (2005 news story)
"Georgia lawmakers passed a bill that increases the maximum alcohol content in beer from 6 percent to 14 percent, the Associated Press reported June 21, 2004."
Beer battle brewing in Alabama
Aficionados are fighting to end decades-old state restrictions on making and drinking their beverage of choice. They have raised the ire of Southern Baptists.
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 10, 2008
HARVEST, ALA. — Two dozen guys are crowded into a basement, talking loudly over Triscuits, when Scott Oberman breaks the law.
In defiance of Alabama Criminal Code 28-4-20, he pours his buddy a beer.
"John Tipton's Chocolate Porter," he announces. It's a dark brown beer, almost black, with a taste that starts out astringent, like cheap red wine, then mellows into a silky chocolate flavor, with fleeting notes of coffee and cinnamon.
Tipton, a big-bellied mechanical engineer, brewed it at home, for fun. That's illegal in Alabama. He estimates the beer is about 8% alcohol by volume. That's illegal, too....(
full story)
..."Here in Alabama, home-brewing beer has long been a Class A misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. It's another Class A misdemeanor to sell or distribute any beer with more than 6% alcohol content. That puts off-limits 85 of the 100 top-rated beers in the world, as ranked by BeerAdvocate.com. "They think everyone down here is a bunch of damn rednecks and all we drink is Budweiser," grumbles Tipton, 48.
Whole categories of beer can't be sold in Alabama (except on federal military bases, where the state law doesn't apply). Among the forbidden brews: thick, dark Russian stouts, smoky Scottish ales, bittersweet barleywines and the legendary beers made by Belgium's Trappist monks...."
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"They point out that 37 states, including Georgia's neighbors, Tennessee and Florida, already have no restrictions on the permitted alcohol content of beer. Massachusetts and South Dakota have 14-percent limit."
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Conclusion, you can buy only rice beer in Alabama, but Florida has good beers, in addition to the rice beers.
west Florida is different than...say north Alabama? I have heard it is less... but that was along time ago. I still do not know?