National Beer Day: Prohibition Ended 85 Years Ago Saturday

UNDATED -- Saturday will mark the 85th anniversary of the end of prohibition in the United States. The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, took effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 7th, 1933.

Many breweries went out of business during the 13 years of prohibition, but one that survived was Schell's Brewery in New Ulm.

Schell's President Ted Marti is a Fifth generation descendent of August Schell. He says their family brewery continued to operate by selling near beer.

And that's what we sold was a non-alcoholic beer, less than 1/2 of 1 percent.  It was acceptable for the government, but not acceptable to the consumer.  They didn't care for it.

As the story goes, on the evening of April 6th anxious Americans lined-up at breweries and distilleries to buy legal beer and alcohol at the stroke of midnight.  Marti says there were a lot of people anxious to drink a pint of their beer back on April 7th, 1933.

The only story I have is that the parking lot here at the brewery was jammed with vehicles ready to pick up beer at 12:01 a.m.

Marti says, because Schell's sold near beer during the 13 years of prohibition (1920-1933), it was easier for them to ramp up quickly back to regular beer.

Schell's Brewery has been making beer since 1860 and is the second oldest family-owned brewery in America.

Schell's is considered a craft brewery, and they distribute their beers throughout the five-state upper Midwest region.

Saturday is "National Beer Day", which has been celebrated every year on April 7th since 1993.

Beer Trivia:
-- Beer is the second most popular beverage in the world, second only to tea.

-- Beer was first sold in bottles in 1850.  It wasn't until 1935 that beer was sold in cans.

-- A barrel contains 31 gallons of beer. A keg is 15.5 gallons or a half-barrel.

-- There are two basic categories of beer: lager and ale.

-- Cenosillacaphobia is the fear of an empty beer glass.

-- English pubs sell ale by pints and quarts.  When customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at patrons to mind their own pints and quarts, and to calm down.  Over time bartenders shortened the expression to 'mind your P's and Q's'.