# What happened to liquor companies during Prohibition? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121 "2008-12-20T23:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/1 "2008-12-20T23:15:01Z")
So it’s 1920 and you’re a big American producer of alcoholic drinks. Prohibition hits. Sure, you’ve had a year to prepare for this, but what did you do during that year? Sell everything off and fire everybody? Try and convert to another line of business? Move abroad? Once Prohibition was repealed, how long did it take for the liquor companies to get rolling again? How did they manage to get back into a market that, I assume, depended heavily on importing at this point? Did new companies start up or was it the old ones coming back? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/2 "2008-12-20T23:21:34Z")
My WAG is that IF they stayed afloat it would have been by doing contract bottling work for beverage companies. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/3 "2008-12-20T23:55:33Z")
The Henry Weinhard company started selling non-alcoholic soda drinks. Coors sold malted milk and “near beer” during prohibition. Jack Daniels simply shut down and stopped distilling. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/4 "2008-12-21T00:03:46Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > Jack Daniels simply shut down and stopped distilling. They just did nothing for thirteen years, and then got running again as soon as they were allowed? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/5 "2008-12-21T00:30:28Z")
Anheuser-Busch produced [Bevo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevo), a “near beer”. A-B’s corporate [history](http://www.anheuser-busch.com/History.html) pages go into only slightly more detail. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/6 "2008-12-21T01:08:04Z")
As I understand it, distilleries could still make “limited” amounts of “medicinal” brandy. This was sold by pharmacies-by doctor’s prescription. In one section of Boston (Mattapan), there were 33 pharmacis license to sell medicinal alcohol, in a 2 mile stretch. Wineries were allowed to make sacramental and kosher wines, again in “limited” quantities. Beer brewers mostly shut down, or made non-alcoholic beer. And quite few distillers moved to Canada, where they recorded huge sales to private dealers (in the USA). Prohibition was a disaster and the best thing that ever happened to organized crime. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/7 "2008-12-21T02:20:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Once Prohibition was repealed, how long did it take for the liquor companies to get rolling again? How did they manage to get back into a market that, I assume, depended heavily on importing at this point? Did new companies start up or was it the old ones coming back? The repeal was foreseeable a long way off. There was widespread support for repeal by the 1930’s. The Democrats ran on a platform of repeal in the 1932 election and won in November of that year. The 21st Amendment was passed by Congress in February of 1933. The presidential inauguration back then was in March of 1933. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act (which amended the Volstead Act and allowed some beer to be brewed) shortly after taking office. The 21st Amendment, which ended national prohibition (states could still prohibit alcohol), was finally enacted in December of 1933. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/8 "2008-12-21T03:03:39Z")
In Wisconsin most of the town breweries went tits up. Some sold root beer and other sodas. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/9 "2008-12-21T03:36:12Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Anheuser-Busch produced [Bevo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevo), a “near beer”. A-B’s corporate [history](http://www.anheuser-busch.com/History.html) pages go into only slightly more detail. It may be light on detail, but it’s a pretty good answer to the OP. > [@](#): > > Anheuser-Busch diversifies with a long line of products including ice cream, barley malt syrup, ginger ale, root beer, chocolate- and grape-flavored beverages, corn syrup, truck and bus bodies, refrigerated cabinets, baker’s yeast and dealcoholized Budweiser ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/10 "2008-12-21T04:23:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Anheuser-Busch diversifies with… truck and bus bodies, refrigerated cabinets, baker’s yeast and dealcoholized Budweiser. And I wonder which of these tasted the best? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/11 "2008-12-21T07:51:02Z")
> [@](#): > > dealcoholized Budweiser Isn’t that a redundency? ---
**Author:** ![tzimmerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@tzimmerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tzimmerman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/12 "2008-12-22T04:13:44Z")
Some switched to making de-natured alcohol for various industrial and medical uses. Also, in many states you actually could buy alcohol if prescribed by a doctor for a specific “illness”. I’ve heard that this was widely abused in some areas. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/13 "2008-12-22T04:31:48Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Isn’t that a redundency? No, it is not a redundancy. De alcoholized Pearl is a redundancy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/14 "2008-12-22T04:59:05Z")
Stroh’s Brewery in Detroit became a full-service soda fountain supply house, including making some very tasty ice cream which remained a sideline product well into the 80s. It proudly proclaimed a higher butterfat content than Håagen-Dazs (back when that would have been considered a selling point). ---
**Author:** ![What\_the\_deuce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/71e660/32.png) [@What\_the\_deuce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the_deuce)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/15 "2008-12-22T06:27:02Z")
> [@tzimmerman](#): > > Some switched to making de-natured alcohol for various industrial and medical uses. Also, in many states you actually could buy alcohol if prescribed by a doctor for a specific “illness”. I’ve heard that this was widely abused in some areas. I’m dying to know what illnesses require the use of alcohol as a treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/16 "2008-12-22T15:47:27Z")
> [@What\_the\_deuce](#): > > I’m dying to know what illnesses require the use of alcohol as a treatment. According to the highly religious neighbor I once had, she did not drink, but kept a bottle next to her bed for her “itchy throat.” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/17 "2008-12-22T15:52:09Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m dying to know what illnesses require the use of alcohol as a treatment. Impotence? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/18 "2008-12-22T16:02:48Z")
As a side note, the [Siebel Institute of Technology](http://www.siebelinstitute.com/) is a world-renowned school which teaches brewing technology, from the basics up to the microbiology of yeast. During Prohibition, they [switched to teaching other subjects](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebel_Institute_of_Technology), including baking and carbonated beverages. They switched back when it became apparent that Prohibition was going to be repealed. It is often said that Prohibition was responsible for the US losing many of the smaller, local breweries, leaving mostly the large ones who perhaps had the money to retool their operations to adapt during that time period. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/19 "2008-12-22T16:35:34Z")
Nobody’s mentioned yet that use for religious services got a dispensation, too. A few wineries, like Christian Brothers, made sacramental wine during Prohibition. The religious dispensation, like the medical dispensation, was abused, but not as much as one might expect. ETA: Oh, excuse me. It was briefly mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![MSTM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@MSTM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MSTM)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121/20 "2008-12-22T16:48:38Z")
Anheuser-Busch diversified well before prohibition. The building I work in was built by Anheuser-Busch in 1900 not as a brewery but as an office building with retail space on the first floor. It was a real estate investment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-liquor-companies-during-prohibition/478121.md?page=2)