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At precisely one minute after midnight tonight 100 years ago, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.” The prohibition of alcohol gave way to a rise in organized crime. Breweries and distilleries shut down. Some continued to produce alcohol for medicinal purposes (which was still legal with a script). Bootlegging occurred on a massive scale. Politicians accepted bribes and looked the other way when alcohol was transported through towns, stored in warehouses or when speakeasies were established.

Some fun facts
1) The Volstead Act did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol. Wines and liquors were stockpiled for personal use.

2) Budweiser was reformulated to be alcohol free

Spoiler: show

and continues to be well into the 21st Century

3) Doctors were able to prescribe medicinal alcohol for their patients.You could legally buy a pint once every 10 days or so. Walgreens grew to several hundred stores due to Prohibition.

4) The KKK was a huge supporter of Prohibition.

5) Yuengling and Anheuser Busch made ice cream. Coors produced pottery and ceramics.

6) “Near beer” was legal contained less than 0.5 percent alcohol.

7) Cocktails were created to mask the taste of bathtub gin and other homemade booze.

8) Prohibition save the rise of homebrewers

9) Saw the rise of the booze-cruise

10) Temperance leaders actually tried to have the Bible re-written, having all references to alcohol removed.

Tomorrow is the 100th Anniversary of that terrible law. I'm sure some Republican in the 1920s told a complaining Democrat to "Amend of STFU". So, tomorrow raise a pint or have a dram!

One of my favorite history books is Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. I highly recommend it for any student of Prohibition.

Neat fact Ibanez.

Really glad I did not live back in those days.

Winterborn wrote:Neat fact Ibanez.

Really glad I did not live back in those days.

Women were a lot uglier and men were a lot weaker back then.

Ivytalk wrote:One of my favorite history books is Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. I highly recommend it for any student of Prohibition.

I will look it up. There was a couple of bootlegger runs near my parents house where guys would make a run from Canada and make drop near near a couple of the lakes and people would pickup the shipment there. A few of our neighbors that made moonshine back in the day as it was a good business supplying the Twin Cities Speakeasy's.

CAA Flagship wrote:

Winterborn wrote:Neat fact Ibanez.

Really glad I did not live back in those days.

Women were a lot uglier and men were a lot weaker back then.

Ibanez wrote:7) Cocktails were created to mask the taste of bathtub gin and other homemade booze.

This one is a little deceiving as it should say "New cocktails". Cocktails existed long before prohibition.

Ivytalk wrote:One of my favorite history books is Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. I highly recommend it for any student of Prohibition.

Thanks...just got it on Audible.

Winterborn wrote:Neat fact Ibanez.

Really glad I did not live back in those days.

My great grandfather lost a few digits when the still in his shed exploded.

89Hen wrote:

Ibanez wrote:7) Cocktails were created to mask the taste of bathtub gin and other homemade booze.

This one is a little deceiving as it should say "New cocktails". Cocktails existed long before prohibition.

Yeah, I should have said something like gained popularity, a dramatic increase in their use or something like that. I think they had been around, in earnest, for at least a century or so before.

My grandparents had a tunnel under their house for a speakeasy.

Apparently there is a new trend of "speakeasies" in college towns. Holy dumb ideas.

89Hen wrote:My grandparents had a tunnel under their house for a speakeasy.

Apparently there is a new trend of "speakeasies" in college towns. Holy dumb ideas.

The speakeasy has made a comeback. There are several here in Charlotte where you have to be a member (i.e. sign up online) and they only allow so many in at a time.


There is one, in the back of a Mexican restaurant where the only way to get in (if you know it exists) is to go to their phone booth, pick up the phone and give the daily password). Then a door marked (Office) opens up.

Here's another, overly dramatic one.

https://www.charlotteagenda.com/160591/ ... quote]Ring the bell – A bartender will pick up and ask for the password. State it exactly as written. They take it seriously. The day I went it was a full phrase, not a word and I kept messing it up. I was there specifically for coverage for this story and had already been inside they wouldn’t even let me back in if I said it wrong. Get it right.[/quote]

There's no fixing stupid.

I've been to one of them, Dot Dot Dot, and it's just an overpriced bar with mediocre Old Fashions.

Ibanez wrote:it's just an overpriced bar...

Exactly.

Ibanez wrote:I've been to one of them, Dot Dot Dot, and it's just an overpriced bar with mediocre Old Fashions.

Bismarck has one, fake door and all, that makes some really good Old Fashions. Plus they have this one drink that is made with Fruity Pebbles. It is interesting (in a good way) to say the least.

Winterborn wrote:

Ibanez wrote:I've been to one of them, Dot Dot Dot, and it's just an overpriced bar with mediocre Old Fashions.

Bismarck has one, fake door and all, that makes some really good Old Fashions. Plus they have this one drink that is made with Fruity Pebbles. It is interesting (in a good way) to say the least.

Fruity Pebbles was my favorite strain of weed.

Ibanez wrote:

Winterborn wrote:
Bismarck has one, fake door and all, that makes some really good Old Fashions. Plus they have this one drink that is made with Fruity Pebbles. It is interesting (in a good way) to say the least.

Fruity Pebbles was my favorite strain of weed.

I ordered one just to give it a try (company outing so work was buying ) and it was okay. I wouldn't buy one if I was paying for it. A bit too sweet for my tastes.

A drink a buddy introduced me to is the Zombie. When it is made right, it is very good.

The Zombie is a cocktail made of fruit juices, liqueurs, and various rums. It first appeared in late 1934, invented by Donn Beach at his Hollywood Don the Beachcomber restaurant. It was popularized on the East coast soon afterwards at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

1 1/2 oz Puerto Rican golden rum
1 1/2 oz Jamaican rum
1 oz demerara 151 rum
1/2 oz Donn's Mix (2:1 mix of grapefruit juice & cinnamon syrup)
1/2 oz velvet falernum
3/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz grenadine
2 dashes absinthe
1 dash angostura bitters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(cocktail)

Winterborn wrote:

Ibanez wrote:I've been to one of them, Dot Dot Dot, and it's just an overpriced bar with mediocre Old Fashions.

Bismarck has one, fake door and all, that makes some really good Old Fashions. Plus they have this one drink that is made with Fruity Pebbles. It is interesting (in a good way) to say the least.

Speakeasy Fruity Pebbles that alone tells you how stupid these are.

Winterborn wrote:

Ibanez wrote:I've been to one of them, Dot Dot Dot, and it's just an overpriced bar with mediocre Old Fashions.

Bismarck has one, fake door and all, that makes some really good Old Fashions. Plus they have this one drink that is made with Fruity Pebbles. It is interesting (in a good way) to say the least.

Is it downtown or elsewhere in Bismarck? I usually get dragged to Bismarck once a year for work.

There's a bunch of them in San Antonio. Difficult to find (obviously) but once you know where they are, they're pretty laid back. Went to one, however, and when my wife asked for a Vodka/Cranberry the answer was "we don't serve vodka here. We believe vodka adds nothing to a drink."

I politely told the bartender to "fuck off" and we took our business elsewhere. I mean, they're essentially saying "if you like vodka drinks, you have piss poor taste!" WTF kind of a marketing strategy is that?

AZGrizFan wrote:There's a bunch of them in San Antonio. Difficult to find (obviously) but once you know where they are, they're pretty laid back. Went to one, however, and when my wife asked for a Vodka/Cranberry the answer was "we don't serve vodka here. We believe vodka adds nothing to a drink."

I politely told the bartender to "fuck off" and we took our business elsewhere. I mean, they're essentially saying "if you like vodka drinks, you have piss poor taste!" WTF kind of a marketing strategy is that?

I told you they were stupid.

89Hen wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:There's a bunch of them in San Antonio. Difficult to find (obviously) but once you know where they are, they're pretty laid back. Went to one, however, and when my wife asked for a Vodka/Cranberry the answer was "we don't serve vodka here. We believe vodka adds nothing to a drink."

I politely told the bartender to "fuck off" and we took our business elsewhere. I mean, they're essentially saying "if you like vodka drinks, you have piss poor taste!" WTF kind of a marketing strategy is that?

I told you they were stupid.

Well, we've never been back to THAT one, but there's one very near our house that we like to go to early in the evening, before it gets crowded. They'll make you anything you want, no questions asked.

AZGrizFan wrote:

89Hen wrote: I told you they were stupid.

Well, we've never been back to THAT one, but there's one very near our house that we like to go to early in the evening, before it gets crowded. They'll make you anything you want, no questions asked.

Did you have to 'join'?

Great thread, Ibanez!

My grandparents were from Ferguson Falls and Minot. They moved to Havre during prohibition and became rum runners. There’s a family story of the two of them being chased by a federal agent down Main Street with gunfire and grandma throwing bottles out the back of the new truck. They eventually ditched the truck and grandpa shed his new sheep-fur coat as they set out on foot. The next week they saw the same federal agent driving their truck and wearing grandpas jacket around town.

They eventually homesteaded in Canada to avoid warrants for their arrest and that’s where my mom was born before they moved down to Spokane.