New BEERs Eve, 1933

I'll be making a more serious entry in the next couple of days regarding the possible closing of an important historic site here in New Jersey. But for now, happy New Beers Eve!

On April 7th, 1933 it became legal once again, to quaff a frosty one. 75 years ago today. I plan on celebrating, and you should too. There's a lot of history behind beer. If you can find it, there's a wonderful article in the latest issue of the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News covering that momentous occasion. If you like beer like I do (I'm talking about craft beer here, not mass market yellow water), then you'll love the publication.

Before someone jumps on me, yes I know prohibition was repealed on December 5th, 1933 but the Volstead Act was modified to make beer and wine legal on April 7th (The Cullen-Harrison Act). The country went nuts. Abner Drury's Brewery sent a truck load of beer to the White House at 12:05. Try doing that today! As a matter of fact, the White House received beer from all over the country. Most of it would have been green - no, not like beer tinted with food coloring on St. Pat's - but rather, not quite finished lagering yet. But hey, it tasted better than that nasty near beer and had 3.2% alcohol in it. In New York, Anheuser-Busch sent a 5 ton truck pulled by 6 Clydesdales to the Empire State building. What a party it must have been.

It's hard to imagine a country without the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world. Chemical traces of it show that beer has been around since around 3300 BC. Popular drink, huh? But, for 14 years, you couldn't drink it legally here in the United States. Barbaric. People got so thirsty for a brewski, that the Democratic Platform of 1932, which got FDR elected, included the repeal of Prohibition! The Beer candidate. Brilliant! I'd have voted for him.


So, do yourself a favor and go get a six pack of real craft beer - I know it's almost 10 bucks a six pack, but today is special - and drink a toast to the fact that Prohibition is, well, history!

Beer geek, meet history geek. Cheers!