On January 16th, 1920 the United States instated a law appealing the 18th Amendment which prohibited the making, buying, and selling of alcoholic beverages including beer, spirits, and wine. This point in time was know as prohibition.
With prohibition instated; how could breweries survive…?
During prohibition most breweries closed and we shutdown. Only a handful were permitted to make and distribute what was known as “near-beer”. Near Beer was a malt beverage with an alcohol content of 1/2% ABV or less; it was made primarily to supply the masses with a beverage close to the real thing. Other breweries converted their operations to dairies, soda and bottling companies, candy makers, malt distributors, and die making since there brewing equipment was similar to those industries. Many breweries would convert their underground fermentation caves into ice making and storage.
The Yuengling Brewery waited out prohibition by converting to a dairy. The Yuengling’s Dairy is still standing to this day, across the street from the original brewery and is currently used as the brewery’s gift shop and museum.
Some brewers got wise to prohinbition and began making and distributing “malt extract” to consumers to add to their near beers to give the beverage a little more kick. And if left in a bottle for a period of time malt extract syrup would start fermentation. The largest and most well known breweries that made malt extract syrup was Budweiser, Pabst, Blue Ribbon, and Blatz.
Some breweries brewed porters to be used for medical reasons and required a doctors note to purchase and consume. Some spirits like whiskey was also made for medical reasons as well. As you can imagine a lot of people made regular trips to the doctors office to stay healthy in those days. Wine was consumed only for religious purposes; so churches saw an influx of attendance of people who “found god” and found wine along the way.
All of these were ways to procure and consume alcohol legally, the only other way to produce and sell alcohol during prohibition was illegally.
Prohibition brought bootlegging to the forefront. Bootlegging is the practice of making and selling illegal contraband alcohol. The alcohol ranged from various styles of beers, porters, and ales as well as spirits like whiskeys, vodka, and “bathtub gin” just to name a few. Bathtub gin got it’s name during prohibition because the spirits were often made in actual bathtubs. A lot of classic cocktails that are made to this day were invented during prohibition as a way to help “cut” the strong alcohol that was produced. These beverages would have been distributed to patrons in secret “Speakeasy” bars and taverns usually run by the mob or other organizations. Some of these beverages were made with was was available and sometimes were made with different chemicals, hence the prohibition term “If you drink to much you’ll go blind” which referred to chemicals added to some beverages.
Mobsters and racketeers had a heavy hand in bootlegging and distribution of alcohol too. One of the most famous american bootleggers was a young man by the name of Max Hassel. Hassel was widely known as “The Beer Baron of Berk County”. A recent book was published about Max Hassel’s rise to power called “Bootlegger: Max Hassel, The Millionaire Newsboy” by Edward Taggert.
On July 12th, 1933 was the repeal of the national prohibition. On that same day the Yuengling Brewery located in Pottsville, PA shipped a beer wagon stocked with kegs and cases of beer to the White House in Washington DC to celebrate the repeal of prohibition. Oddly enough though was the beer on the wagon would have had to have taken several weeks to produce, but who cares it was now legal to produce and the government looked the other way and joined in the celebration!
