Roosevelt ran on Prohibition repeal.
President’s Day is this Monday, and as the primaries roll along, that seemed a good reason to take a more lighthearted look at politics through a glass of beer—and remember some of the presidents and politicians of the past who have had a positive impact on the US’s beer culture.
George Washington
Let’s start with an easy one—George Washington. Our first president, he was a homebrewer just like most folks were in those days. Archivists have a found a recipe for a “small beer” in one of Washington’s notebooks dating back to 1757, when Washington was in the Virginia militia. Shmaltz Brewing even recreated the recipe in 2011, creating the “Fortitude’s Founding Father Brew.” (They changed the recipe a bit to suit modern tastes.)
Washington also encouraged citizens to Buy American, and insisted he would only drink porter brewed in the US. While this may have had something to do with the recent end of the Revolutionary War, his heart was in the right place.
James Madison
James Madison was also a huge supporter of domestically brewed beer. In 1809, Madison sought to create a national beer brewery, and have a Secretary of Beer appointed to the presidential cabinet (perhaps so he could fill his own cabinet with fresh-brewed beer…). His goal was to protect the US beer brewers from imported ales and liquors, but the motion was not approved by Congress.
Roosevelt– Now is a good time for a beer (or a martini)
Franklin Roosevelt
In 1933, Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, which signified the beginning of the end of Prohibition. Prohibition, which actually helped fuel gangster activity though bootlegging and speakeasies, spun off of what was meant to be a temporary wartime ban on brewing signed by Woodrow Wilson in 1917 in order to conserve grains for producing food. By 1919, though, the 18th Amendment was signed, banning manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors.
However, the Great Depression and its devastating effects on the country’s economy and spirit helped shine some sense on the matter. When Roosevelt ran for president in 1932 on a platform that called for the repeal of Prohibition, he won by a landslide. By 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th, and happy times were here again.
Jimmy Carter (and Jerry Brown)
Governor Jerry Brown (right) being sworn in for his first term in 1975.
Even after Prohibition was repealed, a loophole in the law continued to classify homebrewing as illegal. And since most (if not all) brewers got their start homebrewing, that put a serious damper on the growth of the beer industry. In 1978, Carter signed a bill sponsored by California Senator Alan Cranston to decriminalize the activity on the federal level, freeing homebrewers from a life of crime and setting the US craft beer industry in motion. Before 1979 there were only 44 breweries in the US, but after just 13 years the number of breweries had risen to almost 500.
And let’s take a moment to remember California’s own Governor Jerry Brown. A long standing friend of beer, Jerry Brown also served as Governor of California from 1975 to 1983 (as well as from 2011 to now). During his first reign, he was approached by several California homebrew clubs to repeal the ban on homebrewing at the state level, which he did in August of 1978. This act was followed by Carter’s federal repeal in October of the same year.
Help Make a Change
So raise a toast (and cast a vote) for the Presidents and politicians who support our rights to choose our brews, and the people like us who helped urge change. A remember, every voice counts.
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