Is Craft Beer/Homebrewing Better Off Because of or in Spite Prohibition?

December 5th will mark the anniversay of the ratification of the 21st Amendment. Had prohibition never happened, brewing would doubless be very different today. The question is:

Is Craft Beer and Home Brewing better off because of or in spite of Prohibition?

I would say In spite of.
Prohibition did noting to advance the knowledge of brewers pertaining to quality. Sure lots of people learned to ferment sugar water, but for quality...I don't think there was ANY advancement.

In 1893 there were 1,930 breweries in the U.S.

Prior to national prohibtion, those numbers started to decline as states enacted restrictions and prohibitions. 1,930 breweries is an astounding number that, without prohibition, would undoubtedly grow. Think about it per capita.

My thought is that there were lots of breweries but not too many styles explored.

Even after prohibition ended wasn't Home Brewing illegal until congress 'fixed' the law in the late seventies? I heard a story about how after prohibition the intention was to make home brewing and home winemaking legal but a foul up in the wording of the law left it illegal for decades.

Assuming that story is true then that would mean that prohibition stifled home brewing for years and years. Afterall, had prohibition not had happened then congress wouldn't have screwed up the law. All of those wasted years.


Its funny, during prohibition both my great-grandfathers and my wife's great-grandmother were brewing beer or ran their own stills during prohibition. Then when prohibition ended they stopped. I'm the first on either side to take it up after all these years.

I can't imagine any scenario where people who were forced to make hooch for a period of time ended up with the advancement of better brewing methods.

I'm not looking at in terms of advance the art.

There was no prohibition in Germany. Their beers are outstanding, but they do not have a craft beer segement and certainly not a homebrewing movement like they do here.

Do you see where I am going with this?

olllllo said:

I'm not looking at in terms of advance the art.

There was no prohibition in Germany. Their beers are outstanding, but they do not have a craft beer segement and certainly not a homebrewing movement like they do here.

Do you see where I am going with this?

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Ah, OK! In that case....I beleive that craft beer and homebrewing in the USA is a symptom of the goddamn awful beer that preceeded those movements. I really do believe it's that simple.

Edit: I can easily imagine though, that prohibition led directly to said goddamn awful beer

yeah, i'd say that prohibition killed a lot of the variety that existed in the american brewing industry. those breweries that were successful after it ended expanded quickly to fill the void, and we ended up with 4/5 of our beer being made by 4 companies, and they all made essentially the same beer (lest it be thought that i claim this as my original idea, it's essentially paraphrased passage from radical brewing).

that homogeneity definitely created a niche for craft beers and homebrewing that might not have been there if there were a wider selection of beer available in the 70s and 80s.

however, i'd say that a lot of us, at least the young ones, have had access to a wide variety of beer for most of our lives. i certainly didn't get into brewing because of a lack of good available beer, if anything it was the good beer that made me interested in what makes beer good, which eventually lead me here.

so i'd say that a lot of the current craft/homebrewing boom relies heavily on the methods developed by pioneering homebrewers who had to make their own beer in order to drink the good stuff. and it relies just as heavily on the abundance of great beer that's readily available today and inspires us to brew better.

I would like to think BMC would have some taste to them like the original European brands...

You Americans and your silly prohibition -

giligson said:

You Americans and your silly prohibition -

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If we didn't have prohibition so many of the ultra rich families of today wouldn't be...well...rich

Eves said:

If we didn't have prohibition so many of the ultra rich families of today wouldn't be...well...rich

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Wouldn't have Nascar without the bootleggers!


Wait....That's not reall a bad thing.

I will say that homebrewing has a specific type of people involved in it. This forum for example is probably the friendliest, most helpful forum on the internet. I imagine its because of the nature of the hobby that we can get along. For this reason I think homebrewing will only grow and eventually good beer will be available to the masses!!!!!!!!!!

Laughing_Gnome said:

Ah, OK! In that case....I beleive that craft beer and homebrewing in the USA is a symptom of the goddamn awful beer that preceeded those movements. I really do believe it's that simple.

Edit: I can easily imagine though, that prohibition led directly to said goddamn awful beer

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I must agree with LG here...shudder....one of the reasons I started homebrewing was the crappy beer that I am contantly bombarded with.

I'm not sure if the BMC was a direct result of prohibition though.... need more homebrew to precess!