Washington DUI Blog

According to the Washington state Liquor Control Board Web site, non-alcoholic beer ” is classified as non-alcoholic (meaning it has less than 0.5% alcohol by volume as shown on the label), it is not considered to be liquor and can be sold to anyone.

So, can non-alcoholic beer, containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV), be consumed while driving? Or is that considered an ‘open container’ violation?”

Washington state’s liquor definitions are based on federal regulations, which differentiate between “low-alcohol,” “non-alcoholic,” and “alcohol-free.” The non-alcoholic label, according to federal guidelines, “may be used on malt beverages, provided the statement ‘contains less than 0.5 percent (or .5 percent) alcohol by volume’ appears in direct conjunction with it, in readily legible printing and on a completely contrasting background.”

Washington’s open-container statute, RCW 46.61.519, says it is “a traffic infraction for a person to have in his possession while in a motor vehicle … a bottle, can, or other receptacle containing an alcoholic beverage if the container has been opened or a seal broken or the contents partially removed.”

Technically, if there is any alcohol in the container then it is a violation. But Francisco Duarte, a DUI defense attorney with Fox Bowman Duarte in Bellevue, disagrees. He ’s confident the open container law applies only to what the law defines as “alcoholic” beverages. Otherwise, anyone with an open bottle of cough syrup could be cited for an open container violation.

“Then we would have to assume that someone driving down the road who has a terrible flu and is taking a particular medication that has some alcohol content can be potentially cited as well,” he said. “We could take this to absurd extremes. What if it was a piece of chocolate prepared with some alcohol content, which does in some instances, result in an alcoholic reading in a Breathalyzer test?”

“O’Douls, which is a non-alcoholic beer, does have some alcohol in it. I don’t believe the content in O’Douls beer falls within that provision. If a person were to contest the infraction in court, I think they would prevail,” he said.