Don't miss the Fifth Annual Brewers' Festival at Jiminy Peak

September 18, 1999!

Mmmm….beer…

Beer is one of the oldest known food products. Recipes have been uncovered dating back from the Cradle of Civilization, thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The practice of beer making and consumption is well known throughout Europe and Asia. Hard cider, made from fermented apples, also has a rich tradition and is still very popular in the United Kingdom. In the US of the 1890's, beer's popularity soared past all other alcoholic beverages, as techniques of mass distribution from the industrial age made it possible to supply the many saloons popping up throughout the land. The unsavory nature of these establishments, and their concurrent vices, sufficiently alarmed and motivated temperance groups who lobbied for passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, making it a crime to sell or possess alcohol. Thankfully, this well-intentioned madness, whose chief benefit was in developing "bootlegging" for the nascent organized crime industry, was repealed in time for the end of the Depression (a coincidence?). However, the damage was done, and the many regional breweries that could not afford to limp through Prohibition on sales of "malt beverages" went out of business. Only a few survived and virtually cornered the market on beer sales via clever marketing and a generic, inoffensive product. In 1976, Jimmy Carter signed legislation that again made it legal to brew large quantities of beer at home. - NEXT