What did breweries do during Prohibition?
The years following the passage of the 18th Amendment were tough for most brewers. From 1919 through the repeal in 1933, brewers fought to stay in business and did whatever it took. Most brewers took up the production of near beer, a beverage the National Prohibition Act of 1919 still allowed, with an alcohol content of 0.5 percent. This was often accomplished by making beer according to the normal process and sending the finished product back to the kettle to boil off the alcohol (this is not how modern low/no alcohol beers are made.) Certainly the most profitable way to stay in business was bootlegging the real stuff. Yet there was the ever-looming threat of a government raid. In this context, brewers were able to provide partially processed ingredients, such as malt syrup and yeast, to those looking to make a batch of brew in their bathtubs. Brewers, often with little capital, had to take advantage of their available resources. Two major resources were refrigeration capacity and pac
