Brew Years Eve

April 5, 2008

“At first, I thought prohibition was a good thing. People were drinking more and having a lot more fun. Without beer, prohibition doesn’t work!”

- Homer Simpson

Dateline U.S. 1933; Americans tired of rum-running hoodlums and blind pigs jerking suds on the side greased the wheels for publicans who finally won their fight against the drys and  restarted their love affair with lady liquor (said in best Walter Winchell voice). That’s right, the end of Prohibition. Two important days to remember are April 7th and December 5th. Of course there is a debate about which day should be celebrated more. My theory is, lets celebrate both equally. Why should we limit ourselves to one day on the calendar for toasting the end of prohibition? The great thing about the craft beer is the social aspect of it so It gives us a reason to gather and celebrate the end of this dark period in our nation’s history.

 April 7th (known by some as Brew Years Eve) marks the date the Volstead Act’s alcohol percent by weight was changed to 3.2(The actual signing of the bill was on March 22, 1933.) Prior to this date it was .5% which allowed for near beer to be sold.  Breweries that made near beer had 3.2% beer ready to go out the door. The process for making near beer was to make 3.2 beer then put it through a dealcoholization process. As you can imagine April 7, 1933 was one huge party. In the first 24 hours after they amended the  Volstead Act, 1.5 million barrels were sold. Picture your 21st birthday. Now imagine almost everyone else in the country turning 21.

Well, not everyone partied that night. Only nineteen state governements initially went along with the change but the rest would soon follow. Michiganders didn’t have legal beer until May 11, 1933. It took a month of government bickering to work out the details but in the end we got our 3.2 beer and was the first state to repeal prohibtion. I am working on something to post in May with more details. 

The reason for amending the Volstead Act was because it was the quickest way to get the brewing industry running again until enough states voted to end prohibition. In order to overturn the 18th amendment you had to get 36 states to pass the 21st amendment. This was achieved on December 5th 1933 when Utah (a state that right now is fighting for legalized home brewing) passed the 21st amendment. This completed the end of prohibition and truly happy times were here again. Hoppy times came much later with the craft beer revolution.

Any plans for Brew Years Eve? Let us know. If you are looking for a list of events in your area  click here for the Beertown link. If you know of any MI celebrations on May 11th, please post the event. I haven’t found any listed

Posted in Beer History