December 5, 2020 marks 87 years since Americans became free, once again, to sell and consume alcohol. This is National Repeal Day — the anniversary of when the United States government struck down Prohibition laws in 1933.
While not an official holiday, Repeal Day is certainly worth celebrating!
Going bar-hopping on the 5th may be out of the question due to ongoing closures and strict COVID-caused capacity limits. However, services like Tavour provide a modern means of honoring the date. The beer delivery app’s existence is itself a celebration of Repeal Day and the rising success of American brewers.
Based in Seattle, Tavour works with more than 600 breweries from 47 different states and offers craft beers to members across the country at the click of a finger. In addition to being emblematic of 21st century technology, Tavour shows just how far the beer industry has come since the days of crowding into hidden speakeasies.
After all, the onset of Prohibition in 1920 saw the shuttering of around 4,000 American breweries and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Those who did want to keep working in beer were forced to either relocate abroad or stay stateside and do so illegally. Crime went up, as did dangerously unregulated booze with potentially harmful ingredients and off-the-charts ABVs.
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One notably good thing did come from the Prohibition era though. Before, women were unable to enter most bars and drink alongside men, and the beer industry was almost entirely male-dominated. This all changed during the 1920s, when women and men alike packed into speakeasies, and both engaged in bootlegging. Repeal Day marked the first time many women could enjoy a drink legally in public establishments, and it was also a sign of changes yet to come.
While the modern beer industry is still predominantly male, women account for nearly 30 percent of today’s brewery workers in the United States, according to the Brewers Association.
It’s also worth noting that the craft beer industry, as a whole, supported more than 2 million jobs as of 2019. And, although the United States was largely alone in its 13-year experiment with outlawed alcohol nearly a century ago, it far surpasses any other country today with its number of craft breweries.
Even with this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, the alcohol industry in general was declared “essential” early on in most states and has proven to be a vital part of keeping the economy going. While bars and brewpubs continue to face public gathering restrictions, working with Tavour has proven to be a viable way for many brewers to continue reaching a large fan base. Nearly 100 breweries have joined forces with the app since March alone.
Those who want to celebrate Repeal Day this December 5th can still do so safely and in a way people 100 years ago may never have thought possible — by having beer delivered right to their doorsteps!
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