This year's battle at the state Capitol over grocery and convenience stores selling full-strength beer cast a spotlight on what some might label the ugly duckling of beers: the 3.2 variety.

But what exactly is this supposedly lower-alcohol brew that grocers and convenience stores such as 7-Eleven sell vs. "regular" beer? Why is Colorado one of a handful of states where 3.2 beer is sold by law - though grocers and convenience store operators insist that 3.2 beer is poised to become obsolete.

And is 3.2 beer really much different from the so-called regular beer sold on liquor store shelves?

"Not a whole lot," said Paul Gatza, executive director of the Brewers Association in Boulder. "Most of the domestic lagers are going to be between 3.2 percent (alcohol) by weight and 3.6 percent by weight."

David Reitz, an industry consultant who has worked with the grocery industry on wine and beer sales, noted that "most domestic and imported light beers" range from 2 percent to 3.4 percent alcohol by weight.

"This means that while many are perceived as strong beers by the public, in truth their alcohol content is basically that of 3.2 beer," he said.

The likes of Amstel Light, Coors Light, even the "black stuff" known as Guinness Draught, pack an alcohol level not much different than 3.2 beer, according to the Web site Realbeer.com.

That said, we set out to learn more about 3.2 beer.

The fight over whether groceries and convenience stores should be allowed to sell full-strength beer is likely to resurface at the legislature in 2009.

The grocers lost that battle this year. They warn that their sales of 3.2 beer will plummet starting this summer, now that liquor stores will be allowed to open Sundays and sell regular beer, wine and other alcohol starting July 6.

The grocers argue that beer drinkers will prefer to buy regular beer at the liquor store on Sundays, when most sales of 3.2 beer currently occur.

Aside from Colorado, five other states have rules governing sales of 3.2 beer: Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah.

Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller are among big brewers selling 3.2 beer. Craft brewers such as Breckenridge Brewery and Boulder Beer also sell it.

How do brewers make 3.2 beer?

"What they'll generally do is add water to the brewing process," said Gatza of the Brewers Association. "That would be the most common way to do it."

The roots of 3.2 beer date to the Prohibition era.

The 18th Amendment creating Prohibition banned "intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes." But it didn't refer to the alcohol level or identify the beverages.

After Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, Washington lawmakers succeeded in revising the Volstead Act, which had governed the level of alcohol considered "intoxicating."

After hearing from scientists and brewers, Congress rewrote the act to classify "nonintoxicating" beverages as those containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol.

The change also allowed beer sales to resume months before the needed two-thirds of the states ratified the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition, in December 1933.

After Roosevelt signed the law permitting 3.2 percent alcohol beer, the beer taps opened on April 7, 1933.

Maureen Ogle - author of Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer - noted that the 3.2 level was the same as most pre-Prohibition beer.

"It was just a matter of expediency and politics in 1933," she said.

Not long afterward, Colorado established that grocery stores could sell only 3.2 percent beer and that they could sell the brew seven days a week.

Younger beer drinkers from 18 to 20 years old could drink 3.2 beer in Colorado until 1987, when the state bowed to pressure from Uncle Sam to boost the legal drinking age or lose federal highway dollars.

Fast-forward to today.

The new law allowing Colorado liquor stores to open on Sundays spurred grocery and convenience stores to cry foul, saying it would deep-six their sales of 3.2 beer.

"This new law is unfair to retailers who want to compete fairly and to consumers who want the convenience of buying beer when they pick up groceries or stop for gas," said Sean Duffy, spokesman for the grocery and convenience stores.

He added that the stores would "closely watch" their 3.2 sales this summer and fall "and show what happens when the legislature picks winners and losers in the marketplace."

Lawmakers killed a bill this year that would have allowed grocery and convenience stores to sell regular beer and wine. Liquor stores fought the bill, arguing that they would be put out of business.

The Colorado Department of Revenue collected $582,595 in excise taxes for 3.2 beer last year. It collected $8.1 million for regular beer.

So just how popular is 3.2 beer?

"It does pretty well," said Todd Usry, brewery director at Breckenridge Brewery, which sells a 3.2 version of its Avalanche amber ale.

The brewer made 1,220 barrels of the beer last year, compared with about 17,000 barrels of regular Avalanche.

Usry said the beer is especially popular among tourists who like to buy beer at grocery stores. He noted that tourists may not realize they're buying 3.2 beer.

"We see it ramp up in Summit County, especially when ski season kicks in," he said of 3.2 sales.

So what does Usry think of 3.2 Avalanche vs. the regular version of the amber ale?

"I kind of prefer it," admitted Usry. "It's a little bit lighter to me."

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467