American Craft Beer Celebrates Repeal Day 2017

As we enter into the winter holidays it’s important that we don’t overlook a significant day in history, especially for those of us who enjoy a serious beer.

December 5^th ,now known as Repeal Day, is a celebration of the day when our country repealed the 18^th amendment, ending thirteen misguided years of Prohibition, and restoring the right for Americans to purchase and consume alcohol once again.

Ratified on January 16^th 1919, the 18th Amendment, prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor throughout our country causing countless problems like giving birth to organized crime.

It was a dark, dark period when Americans were deprived by the government of all the rich customs associated with drinking, an intrinsic part of our social fabric.  Proud professions were lost or went underground…And those who desired a drink (an undoubtedly the pleasurable buzz that goes with it) were forced into the shadows.

Americans who continued to drink were forced into lives of duplicity …Drinking alcohol had in essence become criminalized by the state, and with that a large segments of its citizens were deemed criminals.

Eventually, the country came to its senses and awoke to the widespread problems that Prohibition had created. And support for the misbegotten law began to wane.

Outraged citizens and public figures like John D. Rockefeller Jr joined a growing chorus of Americans who championed a counter-movement which eventually led to this atrocious ban being overturned.

The 21st Amendment, which finally put the stake in Prohibition, was ratified on December 5, 1933 and the world immediately became a more considerate place.

So raise a glass everyone…because December 5^th is more than a mere historical marker…

Repeal Day celebrates a return to sanity and to our rich traditions of craft fermentation and distillation.

It also marks the return of a precious individual freedom that should have never been taken away.