April 7, 2008 marked 75 years of a legal, safe and regulated beer industry in America. 2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition and on Monday, April 7, 1933, before Prohibition was officially repealed in December, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law, which legalized beer with an alcohol-by-volume percentage of 3.2, thus making beer the first alcohol beverage legally re-enter the marketplace legally.
“Americans now have access to nearly 13,000 labels of beer —all within the safest alcohol distribution system in the world because of the state-based regulatory system that was established 75 years ago,” said Craig Purser, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).
The repeal of Prohibition led to the development of an effective state-based regulatory system that continues to protect consumers from tainted or counterfeit alcohol — a problem that was prevalent during the Prohibition era and is still prevalent today in many countries around the world.
The economic impact of Prohibition’s repeal is staggering.
America’s beer industry — made up of brewers, beer importers, beer distributors, brewer suppliers and retailers — directly and indirectly contributes nearly $190 billion annually to the U.S. economy. The beer industry supports more than 1.7 million jobs, provides almost $55 billion in wages, and pays more than $36 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, NBWA says.
For more information about NBWA, visit www.nbwa.org.
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