New Beer’s Eve isn’t just another made up drinking holiday. It has some real historical significance.
We all know that Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, but before that date came the Cullen-Harrison Act which allowed the manufacturing and sale of beer up to 3.2% alcohol. Previously, the limit defined by the Volstead Act as ‘intoxicating liquor’ was anything over 0.5% alcohol. Child’s play. While this new limit was signed into law on March 23rd, it did not go into effect until April 7th.
The story goes that at 12:01 AM on the 7th, FDR said “I think this would be a good time for a beer.” He was delivered a drink by an Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale drawn carriage.
So here we are, many years later still as excited to crack open a beer as our predecessors were the night before their favorite beverage became legal once again. Sure, it’d be another few months before they could have liquor again, but this was a pretty good start.