The Utah Brewers Cooperative Brews Up One Chubby Beer

Although Utah’s liquor laws have relaxed in recent years, the laws are still so unusual and convoluted that even the state doesn’t understand what’s legal and what’s not. While Utah law limits the sale of beer to the public in containers of no more than 2 liters, this statute raised questions to those who knew their Utah liquor lingo.

In Utah, the legal definition of beer is “a fermented beverage that does not exceed 4.0% Alcohol By Volume,” and full strength beer is considered liquor in the state.  So as it turns out the 2-liter beer limit never applied to liquor store beer since it was enacted to limit the container size of grocery store beer.

A thorough investigation by the Utah Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control confirmed that there are no laws governing the size of alcohol containers at State Liquor Stores – heck they’ve been selling wine in 5-liter boxes for years. And so enters the Chubby, a five-liter mini-keg of Utah’s finest brews. Although the 5-liter keg is nothing new to most everywhere else, in Utah this thing is huge. The Chubby now means that us Utahns can get full-strength draft beer without driving to Wyoming.

The Chubby Next to Some Stubby's

To investigate, I drove down to the Utah Beer Store (1763 South 300 West, Salt Lake City) to pick up a Chubby. Available in either the Squatters India Pale Ale (6.5% alcohol by volume) and the Wasatch Gold Ale (5.2% alcohol by volume), I chose the higher in alcohol chubster.

The beer lady gave me a quick tutorial on how to properly operate the Chubby. At around $25, I did the math and it comes out to 169 ounces – that’s about 10.5 pints of beer at $2.40 a pint – not bad.

Venting the Chubby

Once the Chubby is opened you only have a day or maybe three to drink up before it goes flat. Unopened, the Chubby should keep well for around a month. I immediately invited my 10 closest friends over to cheers the new era of Utah brews.

To tap the Chubby, first you need to vent the keg from the top, then you pull out the tap on the bottom, and then you’re good to pour. The first pour was frothy goodness – like it was flowing out of a real tap. Squatters classic India Pale Ale has previously only been available in bottle and oh does this award-winning beer taste better on draft. A gold medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival, Squatters IPA has plenty of hops up front with a smooth, toasty malt finish.

We are still days away from having full-sized kegs available for private use and full-strength draft beer at bars, but we will take what we can get. The Chubby will be fabulous for river trips, camping trips, and backyard barbecues, plus it will make an excellent Salt Lake City souvenir.

Kicking the Chubby