Hey! I am still alive after all. Most blogs don't come back after three months dead time, but this is not most blogs! And while it's "just" an infographic, this is more important than most infographics, because it's packed with real facts, not guesses and BS. It came from my friends at DISCUS, the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
This is about REPEAL! When Prohibition was smacked back into a deep dark Cave O' Shame for all the lies it told, damage it caused, and joy it prevented...and it's never come back out, because Prohibition just doesn't work. This "great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose," was tested on the whole country, as if we were lab rats in some Skinner Box, so the bluenoses could prove to us that booze was the source of all evil. They were wrong, and once the good people of America realized it, they righted the wrong, and Happy Days Were Here Again.
So on December 5th, we're gonna party like it's 1933.
I don't often double-post from one of my other blogs, but this is one of those times; since the Session Beer Project actually started here, it seems proper.
I suggested to the members of the small (but rapidly growing) Session Beer Project page on Facebook that we should make April 5th (4.5) or April 7th (Little Repeal Day, when 4.0% ABV beer became legal before repeal of the 18th Amendment) our day, Session Beer Day. We could ask for session beers at our favorite bars, and brewpubs, and suchlike, invite people to try them, gin up plenty of social media whoopee, and all dat.
We decided on April 7: there are a lot of photographs of a LOT of Americans happily drinking 4.0% beer we can use, it's a day the beer industry is already aware of, and...it's a Saturday this year (the day before Easter, which is actually kind of weird for me; I have a tradition of drinking big beers that afternoon), which doesn't hurt when you're planning a beer event!
What to do?If you work at a bar (or manage one, or own one), please consider throwing some under-4.5% beers on for April 7th, and making a special price or promotion for them. Tell folks it's Session Beer Day, and encourage them to see how good lower alcohol beers can be. (Good day to get a "We Support" window sticker, too!) If you're a brewer or wholesaler, encourage your accounts to pick up your under-4.5% beers for that day; it's a great chance to promote those beers! If you're a beer blogger/tweeter/writer, please consider spreading the word about Session Beer Day: use the hashtag #sessionday . And if you're a session beer drinker...get out there and ask for it!
We've got some interest...but this is totally grassroots. This isn't a sponsored event, it's not organized (if you know me, you know that), and it's simply about going out and drinking session beer -- 4.5% or lower, good-tasting, great beer -- and enjoying it.
Talking to a beer industry person yesterday -- I'm going to skip their name for obvious reasons -- who dropped this bomb: instead of raising taxes on booze -- which historically results in lower tax revenues, not higher -- why not balance the budget by legalizing recreational drugs? Here's his thinking:
Tax them and sell them in 'drug stores': source of revenue, safer purchase, safer drugs (meaning more money and less costs and no financial reward for drug dealers)
Release all non-violent drug offense prisoners immediately; stop arresting new ones (huge savings in prisons, and more attention paid to violent and property crime...which decriminalizing drugs will also lower)
Eliminate the DEA and drug enforcement arms of police forces, end Coast Guard search and seizure (huge savings, greater personal liberty, return focus to protecting the nation from terrorism)
End the huge flow of money to criminal producers and suppliers (ends huge flow of money to destabilizing groups and terrorists and the Taliban...)
Talk about your win-win. Before you start to scream...think about how much the War on Drugs looks exactly like Prohibition enforcement, and how futile, expensive, and corrupt that was, and what a great thing it was for organized crime, and how that eventually wound up. And then think about how relatively harmless smoking weed is: the most dangerous part is growing it, selling it, or buying it! And think about the main reason we got Repeal: jobs.
Food for thought. At least for discussion. As Rahm Emanuel said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Let's talk seriously about legalizing drugs. And while we're at it, let's abolish the PLCB.
It's The Session, beer blogging on a common topic, and this month it falls, with serendipitous beauty, on the 75th anniversary of the passage of the 21st Amendment: Repeal. If only this were Session #21! We've been asked to reflect on "What does the repeal of Prohibition mean to you? How will you celebrate your right to drink beer?" See all the links soon here at the 21st Amendment brewpub's blog.
21 Thoughts About Prohibition and Repeal.
1. Prohibition was about as likely to ultimately succeed as a law repealing gravity. People drink, and we've been enjoying alcohol for about seven thousand years or more. Note that longevity does not equal an invulnerable cultural position, but the stuff tastes good, too, and it makes you feel wonderful.
2. This did not stop people from attempting to make Prohibition work. Donkeys.
3. But note also: we had it coming to us. Prohibition happened because booze and the people who sold it were out of hand. Saloons were often dens of iniquity, drunken men did squander their paychecks and beat their wives and children, brewers and distillers were corrupt and fed graft money into a corrupt political system. We look back on saloon society and plentiful local breweries and a wide diversity of distillers (oh...for the days of rye distillers in Maryland and Pennsylvania), and we see things through amber-colored glasses, a beautiful Golden Age of Drinking. Well...there were some pretty cool things. But there were some pretty ugly things, too: see Gangs of New York.
4. There was something to that Golden Age, though. The heart sags to think of the local breweries and distilling traditions lost because the industry couldn't police itself. We had monastic breweries here in America, we had pot-stilled whiskey, we had flourishing wineries, and we had saloons that were opulent palaces of booze. All crushed, forcing us to start over from practically nil. Woe.
5. Enforcing Prohibition was a disaster. For every Eliot Ness, for every Mo Smith and Izzy Einstein (pictured here, sharing a legal drink after Repeal), there were a hundred corrupt enforcement agents who signed up for a chance to make bribe money, get away with shooting rivals, or to get inside information on raids for their gangster bosses. Enforcement was underfunded -- often on purpose -- and at times vicious: there was support among some Drys for not labeling wood alcohol as poison, or for simply poisoning all alcohol. And it never stopped more than a minuscule amount of the huge illegal trade in alcohol.
6. If all that sounds like The War On Drugs, the DEA, and Paraquat...well, draw your own conclusions.
7. But while you're drawing those conclusions, keep in mind the obvious. What the War On Drugs is today, Prohibition was yesterday; a doomed attempt to control an easily produced substance that a significant part of the population wanted to buy and consume, an attempt that built and hugely enriched a criminal organization, while making many otherwise law-abiding citizens criminals and scofflaws. Great...
8. Oh, and it also lost the government a huge source of taxes (not that I approve of those excise taxes, but I've found my opposition to them to be quixotic at best) and turned the quality of that product to crap. Thanks.
9. Prohibition was actually immensely popular...at first. It must have been, the 18th Amendment was ratified very quickly. Almost as quickly as the 21st Amendment was, 13 years later.
10. Prohibition was not, however, foisted upon us by Bible-thumpers, "conservatives," puritans, rural nutjobs, or Republicans. They had their place in it, but the progressives, liberals, city-dwellers, public healthmongers, and Democrats were right there beside them. Not a judgment either way, just truth. The Anti-Saloon League was the NRA of its day, the first real power politics practitioner in the modern era, and they didn't care what party you belonged to, as long as you promised to vote Dry.
11. Prohibition was foisted on us by a progressive lie, much like keg registration is being shoved down our throats now. It started in one town/township/county. But the drinking wouldn't stop, and booze would come in from every border. "Give us statewide prohibition," would be the cry, "and we'll show you how it can work! The outsiders are ruining our good work!" And they'd get statewide Prohibition, and the drinking wouldn't stop, and booze would come in from every border. "Give us national prohibition," was the cry, "and we'll show you how it can work! The outsiders are ruining our good work!" And they got national Prohibition...and we got Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, and Joe Kennedy. "Give us more money for enforcement, give us the military to stop smugglers, give us easier search warrants!" And they got it...and nothing happened. Prohibition, as Will Rogers said, made you want to cry in your beer, and then denied you the beer to cry in. Finally, people got fed up, and started talking Repeal.
12. Prohibition got a big boost from business -- John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and other industrialists thought it would mean a clean and sober workforce that they could get to work more like the automatons they wanted -- and government -- because the feds now had the income tax and were rolling in revenue, and thought they didn't need booze tax any more. So did Repeal. When Rockefeller saw that his workers were still drunk, and now were sick from bootleg crap booze, and saw the taxes going to pay for an increasingly corrupt enforcement bureaucracy, he did an about-face. When the Depression hit in 1929, income tax revenues dropped, and the feds needed money to pay for jobs programs -- hey, start up the booze biz again, it's a two-fer!
13. Women were a major force for Prohibition -- they were feeling empowered by the suffragist movement and the Progressive movement -- and, again, for Repeal. Upper-class women were revolted by the corruption, by the blatant hypocrisy of Dry politicians who drank like fish, and by the lack of human sympathy displayed by the more cruel Drys (those guys who wanted to poison the drunks). Urban Catholics and immigrants were against Prohibition because it simply seemed unnatural to them; well, it was.
14. Repeal became unstoppable as the Depression deepened because of the two-fer effect mentioned above. But the damage to America's palate had already taken place. We got used to lighter (cheaper) beer, white (unaged) spirits, Canadian and Scotch (smuggled) whisky, and sweet fortified (cheaper) wine. It took us decades to re-discover what we'd lost.
15. Some of it never was recovered. Thousands -- thousands -- of breweries closed, never to re-open, and the idea of the local brewery was irreparably crippled. Hundreds of distilleries closed, and bourbon and rye distillers were left with a huge, irreplaceable hole in their warehouse inventories. Young bourbons tasted vile, and sold for such low prices that the bourbon business referred to sales as "swapping dollars": the cashflow from the income just barely balanced the outflow of production costs. Rye whiskey, America's heart-warming frontier spirit and the pride of the Monongahela, practically disappeared. We had a hole shot through our memories and our national palate that would take years to begin to replace.
16. Repeal was a gloriously happy occasion. The beer trucks rolled, wine flowed, hipflasks were openly waved. Happy days were here again! I would truly love to go back in time for those two days -- Happy New Beer in April of 1933 and Repeal Day eight months later -- to watch America celebrate the return of John Barleycorn and Demon Rum. And to eat the livers of the Drys...how did Conan put it? "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women." Oh, yeah. That would have been sweet, watching the Anti-Saloon League hating all those fun-loving boozers.
17. The Drys often got the last laugh, or at least a long one. States remained dry, then counties, towns, as local option laws held on. Screwed-up liquor laws kept things weird: in some states, the word "saloon" was illegal. Morality and government greed got mixed in an unholy combination of taxes and control schemes: state stores, rapacious prices, and customers treated like unclean supplicants. An alliance of Baptists (who wanted no drinking) and bootleggers (who wanted no legal booze sales) kept many counties in Kentucky dry to this day. The Drys were salted through the state legislatures, and everyone seemed to think that the return of Prohibition was lurking right around the corner -- after all, it had happened once -- and they had to step cautiously lest it return.
18. But the Drys had been beaten. Prohibition continued to recede, the WCTU became a joke, the ASL withered and died (corrupt itself, at the end), and "temperance" was forgotten. The New Drys, the neo-prohibitionists, didn't really start to re-group until the 1960s, when they found a new home among the Science Geniuses and the Safety Nazis, the good people who were going to save us from ourselves with Science. They realized that Prohibition had been tried, and failed. They openly announced that they would bring their new order to the nation by limiting access to booze (liquor license procedures), by tightening who could drink (the 21 LDA), by re-defining "drunk" (the 0.08 BAC DUI limit), and by raising excise taxes. And that's what they've been hammering away on ever since, with some success.
19. How do we fight it? Two things. First, to quote Mad-Eye Moody (the fake one) in the Harry Potter books: CONSTANT VIGILANCE! The New Drys are constantly flooding the media with anti-alcohol bullshit. Whenever they do, someone should counter them. The brewers, distillers, and vintners didn't in 1919, and look what it got them. Don't ignore them; they are at work every day, earning their grant money and taking aim at your fun. Now, the second thing...we have to admit that they're not all wrong. I've heard ridiculous bullshit from our side too: "You can't get drunk on beer." "You're not an alcoholic if you drink the good stuff." And worst of all, this:
..
..
That's right, silence, as in not admitting the problems of alcohol exist. We have to be honest, or we can't hold them to the same standard. Remember: the reason we got Prohibition was because there really was a problem. A big one. We have to step up and be honest about fighting it.
20. In the meantime, the full fruits of Repeal are sweeping the nation at an increasing rate. Long-dry towns in the South (and North) are going wet, ridiculous laws are being repealed (limits on beer strength; draft beer is allowed in Montgomery, Alabama; South Carolina finally gets rid of airline bottles at bars; and the PA case law...how long, O Lord, how long?!), and attitudes are changing (lowering the 21 LDA is being openly discussed for the first time in 20 years). The New Drys are fighting fiercely, and ground is exchanged back and forth, but we're definitely in the fight.
21. As for me...I intend to celebrate this momentous 75th Anniversary of Repeal in the same way everyone else did in 1933. I'm going to get me to a brewery, and get a few big seidels of good lager beer.
I really wanted to do some stories on the 75th anniversary of Repeal, which is coming up this Friday, December 5th, but it just didn't come together for me. I'll just have to settle for stopping by Memphis Taproom Friday afternoon for dollar drafts (really, 3-4 PM), lifting a glass to the memory of the folks who got us out of Prohibition, and visiting this cool website put up by the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS). Prohibition and Repeal were immensely influential events in U.S. history, and hardly anyone knows the truth about them these days, or even thinks about them.
So go, learn, get smart. And come Friday, have a drink. Have a couple. Hell, party all night long, because you legally can!
I wish I had some pictures of this, but I don't (hint, hint, anyone who was there...): last night was the "New Beer's Day" anniversary celebration at Tröegs, and we had a blast. I had a very easy run up the Turnpike to Harrisburg (and got 44 mpg with the diesel; better than expected!) and got in a bit early, so I treated myself to a Zoigl Star Lager at Appalachian before heading down Cameron Street to Tröegs (Zoigl's getting a bit long in tooth, but holding up beautifully; delicious kellerbier, stop by and have some).
In honor of 3.2 beer, the drink that post-Prohibition America found "surprisingly good," Tröegs brewed up a version of their old ESB with all English hops, malt, and yeast that came in a little over 4% ABV. I had a glass of that while waiting to give my speech (the evening was a benefit for the Harrisburg Historical Society, so yes, I paid for my beer. That one, anyway, after that, people just put them in my hand...) and it was nice, tasty, refreshing, flavorful, but not hammering.
When 8:00 came, a local fellow read what was apparently one of FDR's speeches...mostly about bank reform. Historians. I stepped up to the mike and told them I was there to talk about beer. This, like the original legislation back in 1933, was met with a roar of approval. I told them how Prohibition was something we deserved -- the booze industry was out of control -- but that it was overdone: I once used the analogy that putting in Prohibition to fight booze business corruption was like shooting your dog because he farts real bad when you feed him beef jerky. It would be much less drastic and much more effective to stop feeding him jerky...or open a window and both of you live with it. They liked that, too. Once Prohibition was in, again it was about money: political money for politicians who supported it, illegal money for the bootleggers and illicit producers, and no tax money for the dopey government that put it into force. Repeal, of course, was all about money: the Depression made Repeal almost necessary. Repeal meant 50,000 jobs and millions in taxes for jobs programs: done deal.
We're only celebrating the advent of 3.2 beer, I told them; full Repeal would have to wait another 8 months. But -- taking a sip of my ESB -- just like people found out back then, low alcohol beer can taste "surprisingly good!" We toasted the return of beer -- never to go away again! -- and then I stepped up to the firkin of ESB, took the big wooden mallet, and pounded home the tap. Did fine, too, didn't spill a drop. And the cask version tasted just great.
A very good evening, and a successful fund-raiser for the Historical Society; by 9:00, they'd already decided to do it again next year. The band, the Hoppin' John Orchestra, was not just fantastic, they were perfectly appropriate, and my hat's off to whoever decided to have them for the event.
Is today the 75th anniversary of Repeal? Not really: April 7, 1933 was when changes to the Volstead Act laws took place and redefined the level at which beer became "intoxicating" as 3.2% ABW instead of 0.5%. The 21st Amendment, ending national Prohibition, wasn't ratified until December 5th, 1933. On top of that, only 19 states and DC had laws in place to handle beer sales on 4/7/33, so it was hardly the national death of Prohibition. Of course, if you wanted wine or spirits, Prohibition was still in place for 8 more dry months.
But you know, the people who are whining and kvetching about this not being the 75th anniversary of Repeal remind me of those Millennium Weenies who went around the last half of 1999 telling everyone they could grab that January 1, 2000 was not the first day of the new Millennium!! Well, no, it wasn't...technically. But no one cared, because everyone saw the big odometer roll over from 1999 to 2000.
Likewise, no one really cared in 1933, because they were all so excited that they could legally get beer, real beer from real breweries, even if it was only 3.2%. In the words of a Wisconsin radio reporter (quoted as part of Maureen Ogle's nicely done run-up to April 7), 3.2% beer "is all that has been promised -- and more. It is agreeably surprising," containing both the flavor and "stimulation" of lagers brewed during the "pre-drought days."
Well, of course it was. It was session beer, right? 'Who wants to drink 3.2 beer?' some of the Repeal nit-pickers ask, with an implied sneer. Well, I do. I'd love a drinkable 3.2% lager beer, or a nice mild or bitter. Which I think is a great way to celebrate this day, the day Americans got legal beer back. Seems like a real Session Beer Project way to do things.
Realizing that yes, I'm talking about Repeal, the anniversary ofwhich doesn't happen until December 5, I came across this quote (in the Wikipedia Prohibition article) from formerly ardent Prohibitionist John D. Rockefeller (yeah, that Rockefeller) on the occasion of Repeal, in which he admits the failure of Prohibition, and it was just too good to waste...because it nails the problems that Prohibition brought...and prohibitions always bring:
When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.
John's actually wrong: contrary to general belief, there are no numbers to support the notion that drinking increased during Prohibition. Talking about drinking increased, wanting to be drinking probably increased, but there were enough people who did abide by the law -- and enough strangulation of source -- that drinking either dropped or stayed level. The rest of it, though, is dead-on. Lessons to be learned.
We're celebrating 75 years since the return of sanity in America this year, and it starts on April 7: New Beer's Day. Beer got a jump on the actual repeal of the 18th Amendment, which didn't happen until 8 months later: Congress, with the willing blessing of FDR, jiggered the Volstead Act to classify 3.2% ABW beer as non-intoxicating, making it legal for sale, and the nation -- well, 20 forward-looking states and the District -- whooped it up accordingly.
The folks at Tröegs have made an occasion of it, and they are doing it up right: beer, beer, and more beer -- some of it under the 3.2 limit, oh sweet Session Beer -- and they've asked me to come up and open the celebration with a short lecture on how we got into the whole Prohibition mess, and how we got out of it.
It's at the brewery on Friday, April 11, beginning at 7:30. Tickets are $25 in advance, $40 after April 8 (and at the door), and all proceeds benefit the Historical Society of Dauphin County. (The cost of the ticket covers the food, entertainment, and the benefit: beers are $3 for the regular Tröegs lineup and $5 for the specialty beers; more details here.)
Come on up and join me in a toast to the moderate, healthy, wonderful joys of beer!
Okay, that was actually Gerald Ford talking about Nixon's involvement with Watergate. But it just as easily could have been said about this. Lord almighty, yes, it could.
Happy Day of Repeal, Americans! Let's lift a legal glass and celebrate.
Pennsylvania Beer Lovers: Please take a look at this.
It's news of PA Senate Bill 674, which proposes allowing beer distributors to sell 12-packs, and taverns to sell up to 3 six-packs. Pathetically incremental, I know, but it's a start. Please e-mail your PA Senator (you can easily do it here) and ask them to vote for Senate Bill 674. This bill will not affect consumption (it lets you buy LESS beer), it will not allow supermarket sales, it will not affect underage drinking. It is a convenience for citizens, that's all.
And for all you tavern owners, beer distributors, and folks in the Biz who would not like to see the boat get rocked...better to settle for a small rocking that might take some of the pressure off.
Today is the 74th anniversary (apologies for getting my math wrong earlier!) of the first fruits of Repeal, when FDR and the new Congress jiggered the Volstead Act to allow sales of 3.2% ABW beer (heh, and light wines, but no one ever remembers that!) after thirteen years of Prohibition, and 20 states (and the District, of course) took them up on it. The 21st Amendment wouldn't be ratified for another eight months, but Americans had their beer back, and we celebrated.
According to Will Anderson's From Beer to Eternity, triumphant throngs surrounded breweries and "cheered themselves hoarse." I woulda been there, better believe it. Anderson quotes that beer was "flowing freely and in great volume" in Philadelphia; the country consumed over 1,000,000 barrels of beer in just that one day.
Victory Brewing, who has used "Resist Prohibition" as a slogan for years (God bless them), brews a beer for occasions just such as this: Throwback Lager, a "pre-Prohibition pilsner," brewed using yeast from the old-school Philadelphia Christian Schmidt brewery and "a small portion of brewer's corn." Throwback to the old days, and 'throwback' because that's what you'll do, throw back another one. Great quaffing beer, and just under my SBP parameters at 5.4% ABV, which is what you need to celebrate a day like this.
On a day like this...remember that beer is a drink of moderation, that most of it is drunk in good health, and that most beer drinkers are solid citizens, not drunken reprobates. Don't let people talk you into being embarrassed to drink beer, don't let people talk you into raising taxes on beer, don't let people talk you into restricting beer. Because we already fought that fight. And today we celebrate the Victory.
