2beerguys beer blog

Let’s party like it’s 1933

Thanks to Kristen for forwarding the article

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. That’s right. 75 years and one day ago, it was illegal to drink a beer. Sad times indeed! The following snippet is from a piece on CNN regarding this special day (and where is the petition to declare today a National holiday?):

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been president barely a month, having been sworn in on March 4 after a landslide victory the previous November. Sweeping into power with him was an anti-Prohibition majority in Congress known as “the wets.”

Together they fulfilled their first campaign promise with passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act, which increased the amount of alcohol allowed in beverages from 0.5 percent to a discernible 3.2 percent by weight.

When the act took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET April 7, trucks and carriages burst out of brewery gates bearing cases and barrels of beer for a parched republic — at least for the District of Columbia and the 20 states whose laws permitted it. Several breweries dispatched cases directly to the White House and the Capitol.

According to the Brewers Association, more than 1.5 million barrels were snapped up in the first 24 hours.

Full-strength beer and hard liquor were still a few months away. National Prohibition wasn’t repealed until the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on December 5.

For the full article, click here.

Below is the announcement made by August Busch Jr. on the morning of the repeal.