Annual Dec 5th Cheer for the 21st Amendment

Cheers, would be outlaws!

 

On a more serious note, I just watched the latest episode of What’s Brewing (see below) and they discussed my local Retail Beer Distributor (Kunda Beverage) and how they ‘made’ beer during prohibition. They obtained NA beer from a local brewery (Adam Scheidt Brewery in Norristown) and then using a large syringe (intended for giving medication to horses) they would ‘create’ beer by adding alcohol (I presume grain alcohol/).

To celebrate the repeal of prohibition, Kunda had a special beer made for them called Watsey’s Special Brew:

“In 1920, my great grandfather, Watson (Watsy) Kunda, founded Kunda Beverage mere weeks before the enactment of Prohibition. Over the next 13 years, he did what he had to do to keep his new business alive. He began purchasing kegs of near-beer from the local Adam Scheidt Brewing Co. A select number of those kegs were then (discreetly) injected with alcohol, and the original “Watsy’s Special Brew” was born. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. More than 100 years later, we’re bringing the name, and a slightly different recipe, back to life, thanks to our good friends at Workhorse Brewing. Raise your glass to Watsy, and let’s just hope the statute of limitations has passed!”

https://breweriesinpa.com/watsys-special-brew-makes-a-comeback-after-102-years/

Here is the label for that beer:



Cheers!

 

Commonly called "Needle(d) Beer" and while some drinkers at the time also made that same presumption, the unavailability of pure grain alcohol and a heavy hand with the needle is what gave it a bad reputation when found at certain locations, as these two Prohibition era quotes note:

And when alcohol, either pure or re-distilled/denatured alcohol, wasn't available, there were other recipes, including ingredients like ether. But (lower right) whatever the method, it could have legal advantages in some cases.

 

What happened to the alcohol that was drawn off in order to make near beer? I believe some breweries sold it for "medicinal use"--not sure if legally. Was any "spiked beer" made with alcohol derived from the near-beer making process?

 

Depends on the technique used. Some near beer breweries accused others in ads of just "boiling off" the alcohol, often combined with what they called "checked fermentation" - not fermenting out all the sugars so the beer was not as alcoholic as normal, using different recipes with fewer fermantable material, etc.

The "good" near beer (at least said the brewers themselves) came from breweries that used dealcoholizers and de-esterizers.

Yeah, but I think the licensed "cereal beverage brewers" were probably well-regulated for just that reason. IIRC, in the early years of Prohibition when "medicinal beer" was allowed, the government proposed that a brewery could either be licensed as a near beer brewer or medicinal beer brewer or the two processes had to be physically separated.

Likely the alcohol drawn off and collected had to be well-accounted for.

I'm sure some "needled beer" was made from good pure alcohol from reliable sources here or abroad (although that alcohol was probably more valuable used otherwise) and there's no doubt that a lot press during the era tended to follow the alarmist pro-Prohibitionist/Government line, at least at the official level*. The reporters themselves? They probably knew where the "good" beer and other drink was in the town.

*Heck, the NBWA still reprints scare stories about illegal alcohol killing people in other countries, suggesting that the 3 Tier system is keeping Americans alive. And it took a long time for "home brew" to overcome its Prohibition era reputation among some of the public.

 

Just how old are you?

 

Old enough that I can still remember having to do my research by reading those reels of microfilm in libraries.

Used to get motion sick from running them "fast forward" trying to find an issue at the end of the spool. Plus libraries were always too hot and that just made it worse. And all those bright fluorescent lights!

(My ol' man was into genealogy so also put in a lot of time at the microfilm machine and microfiche readers.
"Doesn't make you nauseous sometimes?"
"Nah, when I feel that way I just go back to the truck camper and have a bottle of Ballantine Ale."
That cure never worked for me... well, not for that particular malady)