The Brew Deal: How Beer Helped Battle the Great Depression

During the final stages of Prohibition, the US government allowed the consumption and sale of non-intoxicating beer, which was at or below 3.2% alcohol-by-weight. Beers returnpermitted with an eye toward job creation during the Great Depressionwas one of President Franklin D. Roosevelts earliest New Deal policies. In this book, economic historian Jason E. Taylor takes readers through the rapid resurgence of American breweries and shows how beer helped spark a sharp recovery in the spring of 1933.

Taylor begins with stories of how the nations 1,400 breweries were decimated by the onset of Prohibition in 1920. He then turns to the frothy debates that led Congress to declare 3.2 beer non-intoxicating, and hence allowable under Prohibition. While April 7th is now celebrated as National Beer Day, the original April 7thwhen legal beer returned after more than 13 years awaybrought raucous scenes that make todays Mardi Gras festivities seem tame by comparison.

The Brew Deal shares stories of breweries, people, politics, perseverance, and the various roles that 3.2 beer has played in the evolving American beer scene.