Beer With Extra Buzz

Just what we need. Eat your heart out Chang.

Beer with extra buzz on tap up to 16%

By Jessica Leving, USA TODAYA growing number of states are moving to allow higher alcohol content in beer, despite concerns from some substance-abuse experts.Alabama and West Virginia have passed laws increasing the legal alcohol-by-volume cap for beer from 6% to as high as 13.9% this year. Similar efforts are underway in Iowa and Mississippi, two states with very restrictive limits on the sale of high-alcohol beer, said Sean Wilson, former president of Pop the Cap, North Carolina's successful grass-roots effort that raised the state's limit in 2005.

The average alcohol content in beer is 4.65%, and in wine 11.45%, according to a 2002 study by the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif.

Twenty states still place some kind of limit on the amount of alcohol in beer, Wilson said.

Paul Gatza, director of the national Brewers Association based in Boulder, Colo., said limiting alcohol content restricts flavors and styles because "you can't put as much malt or other sugars in your beer as you may want to."