0:00
Today, we're tapping the keg on some breweries who defied prohibition
0:07
Anheuser-Busch decided that the ice cream business would be a cool lifeboat for surviving the national dry spell
0:13
But what really delivered Anheuser-Busch from the jaws of corporate death was yeast
0:17
Realizing people were breaking the law and just brewing their own beer at home, the company slyly started selling the raw products necessary for just an activity
0:30
There are three ways to do something. The legal way, the illegal way, and the Whiteman Brewery way
0:35
Which is the same as the illegal way, only bolder. The Whiteman Brewery in Newport, Kentucky, preferred to break the law rather than make any real changes to their product
0:44
It just ignored prohibition and kept right on brewing bootleg beer. The Whiteman Brewhouse was raided in 1927 by federal agents
0:52
who found an impressive 3,500 barrels of beer just sitting around waiting to be shipped
0:56
the case against Whiteman Brewery took a big hit when the feds involved in the bust turned out to
1:01
be corrupt. The brewery was later returned to Whiteman, and after prohibition, went back into
1:06
production for another 50 years as one of the only six post-prohibition breweries to revive
1:11
its operations in the Cincinnati area Like a lot of other enterprising and morally flexible breweries Valentin Blatt avoided bankruptcy by simply selling the stuff needed to make beer at home Specifically it sold hopped malt extract which you can turn into beer by
1:29
adding yeast and water. As we mentioned before, Anheuser-Busch was already selling yeast
1:34
and water came out of any tap, so home brewing during Prohibition wasn't all that hard
1:39
So how did they get away with it? Well, malt extract like that sold by Valentin Blatz
1:43
wasn't actually advertised as a home brewing ingredient, even if everyone knew that's what
1:48
it was for. Instead, it was marketed as a health tonic and baking ingredient
1:55
Some breweries obeyed the law, some breweries broke the law, and some breweries said
2:00
why choose? Take, for example, the Wiley people at Shell's Brewery. Upstairs, the brewery stayed
2:06
100% legit, with offerings that included near beer, soft drinks, and candy. But beneath the
2:11
surface was a different story. According to Shell's history page, down in the basement was a place for
2:17
the owners to keep their sanity. Which is to say, they sat down there with friends and patrons and
2:22
got absolutely hammered. Like a lot of distilleries, Jim Beam was able to stay afloat during Prohibition
2:29
due to a nice little loophole in Prohibition law, the exception for the use of medicinal liquor
2:35
Yes, that was a thing. For three bucks, one could legally buy a prescription for medical liquor that
2:40
allowed for a pint of booze every 10 days. For some mysterious reason, prescriptions for medicinal
2:46
alcohol spiked from 1920 to 1933
