Near beer
Near beer [ ˈnɪər ˈbɪər ] ( , occasionally spelled with a hyphen , in German “almost like beer”) is the historical name for a malty drink with an alcohol content of less than 0.5% vol , which is associated with prohibition (1919–1933) came up in the USA . It was not allowed as a " root beer " (malt beer) are referred to as the use of the term " beer " was forbidden at the time as a generic term, and was therefore by the authorities as "cereal beverage" (cereal beverage) classified. The term near beer , which was also the brand name of a brewery's product , quickly established itself as a trivial name . Today the term in the USA is a generic term used in technical jargon for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages.
History and historical brands
Even before the entry into force of Prohibition in the United States who were breweries for a legal beverage spare and experimented since 1918 with low-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks to the one under the soon changed circumstances their profits and jobs to get and the other remains on the unchanged demand for To be able to react to beer or beer substitute.
The Anheuser-Busch brewery from St. Louis produced "Bevo", Budweiser "Near Beer", the Pabst Brewing Company from Los Angeles "Pablo", straw from Detroit "Lux-o" and the two breweries based in Milwaukee Miller "Vivo" and Joseph Schlitz "Famo". Lesser known brands with regional significance were “Chrismo”, “Graino”, “Barlo”, “Hoppy”, “Gozo”, “Singo”, “Golden Glow”, “Quizz”, “Yip”, “Mannah” and “Mother's” Paint". In addition, there were hundreds of microbreweries in the USA, each of which only achieved local significance with their near beer . None of these brands survived the end of Prohibition. The sale of near beer was even allowed to children and allowed where beer should not have been sold.
The color and taste varied depending on the amount of malt used. Some types were light and had a rather bitter taste , similar to today's alcohol-free beers; other varieties were rather dark and had a sweet taste , comparable to today's malt drinks.
Illegal grafting
A common illegal practice was near beer by adding vodka , mainly from Canada , shortly before the sale was smuggled aufzuspriten . The resulting drink was colloquially called needle beer [ ˈniːdl ˈbɪər ] ( , in German "Nadelbier") or spiked beer [ ˈspaɪkd ˈbɪər ] ( , in German "beer with shot").
These two names are derived from the fact that the vodka was injected into the bottle through the crown cap . At the White River Valley Museum in Auburn , Washington , a section of the permanent exhibition is dedicated to the Prohibition period in the USA and shows a typical grocery store in Auburn in the 1920s. In this context, bottles of almost all the near-beer brands available at the time are presented, and the process of filling them up is explained to visitors during guided tours.
Since the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution did not make it illegal to possess or consume alcohol, but to manufacture, transport, and sell it, this practice made both the seller by filling and the customer by the transportation of alcoholic beverages needle beer or spiked beer is punishable by law.
Present in the USA
After prohibition was lifted, near beer immediately lost its importance; There is no evidence of continued interest in alcohol-reduced or non-alcoholic beer in the USA after 1933.
From the 2000s in the USA, the term near beer has established itself in specialist circles as a general term for all types of low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages. As alcohol consumption in the USA has been declining since the 1990s, the Anheuser-Busch brewery began to pick up its historic product of the Near Beer brand again in 2010 and has been marketing it as Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser Prohibition Brew since 2016 , now with an explicit reference to the then a time of prohibition that was negative for them.
Distribution in Europe
In Iceland beer was legalized only in 1989, and there existed until then also a near beer under the name Bjórlíki . Since Iceland has no armed forces of its own , traditionally maintains close ties to the USA and was under the protection of the US armed forces from 1951 to 2006 , near beer imported from the USA has been known on the island since the 1920s. The use of vodka for this drink was also a common practice there until beer was legalized.
The largest French brewery, Kronenbourg in Strasbourg , has been producing "Tourtel" (0.4% vol), a near beer available in Europe since 2006 , which is based on American recipes from the 1930s.
Similar drinks
literature
- J. Anne Funderburg: Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era. McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7961-0 .
- Gunther Hirschfelder, Manuel Trummer: Beer: A story from the Stone Age to today. Theiss, Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-8062-3270-7 .
- Mark A. Noon: Yuengling: A History of America's Oldest Brewery. McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2005, ISBN 0-7864-1972-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Richard G. Wilson, Terry Gourvish: Dynamics of the Modern Brewing Industry since 1800. Taylor and Francis, 2003, ISBN 0-415-14705-0 , pp. 172-198.
- ^ Kansas Department of Revenue , Alcoholic Beverage Control: History of Alcoholic Beverages in Kansas . Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d J. Anne Funderburg: Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era. McFarland, 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7961-0 , pp. 29f.
- ^ Homepage on Prohibition in the USA at beerhistory.com, accessed on February 10, 2017.
- ↑ Stephen C. Johnson: Detroit Beer: A History of Brewing in the Motor City. American Palate, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4671-1972-6 .
- ↑ Homepage of the permanent exhibition in the White River Valley Museum , accessed on February 22, 2017.
- ↑ Volker Depkat : History of the USA. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-17-018797-9 .
- ↑ Article by Susan Krashinsky Robertson: Budweiser takes on the near-beer market with Prohibition Brew. In: The Globe and Mail. May 19, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- ↑ a b Steinunn Sigurðardóttir: Hjartastaður. Mál og menning, 1995, p. 41.