Prohibition: Homemade Alcohol In The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s saw the rise of homemade alcohol as a result of the Prohibition era in the United States. From 1920 to 1933, the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages were banned across the nation. Despite this, people found creative ways to continue drinking, such as through the use of home brewing kits distributed by gangs and the corruption of legal brewers. The homemade alcohol, often referred to as bathtub gin, was poorly made and had a bad taste, leading to the rise in popularity of mixed drinks and cocktails.

Bootlegging and gangsters

The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of extravagant parties, events, entertainment, and consumerism. However, with the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which prohibited the manufacture, transport, and sale of liquor, a wave of bootlegging and gangster activity swept across the nation.

Bootlegging, the illegal manufacture, transport, and sale of liquor, became a lucrative business for gangsters and mobsters. They bribed policemen, witnesses, and even FBI agents to turn a blind eye to their operations. One of the most notorious gangsters of the era was Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who rose to the top of the New York Mafia and controlled various racketeering operations, including bootlegging. Another prominent figure was George Remus, a former pharmacist and lawyer, who built a massive whiskey distribution network in Ohio, making tens of thousands of dollars a day.

Gangsters and mobsters also partnered with brewers to produce illegal beer and paid families to run small-scale liquor production in their homes, known as "alky cookers" or "bathtub gin." The Genna brothers gang in Chicago and Frankie Yale in New York were involved in such operations, providing families with the necessary equipment and ingredients and paying them for their production.

The rise of bootlegging also led to an increase in gang violence and murders. Chicago, in particular, was plagued by gang wars, with an estimated 1,300 gangs by the mid-1920s. The Al Capone gang and the George "Bugs" Moran gang were fierce rivals, culminating in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, where seven members of the Moran gang were shot to death.

The failure to enforce Prohibition and the rise of organized crime led to a push for repeal. The Wickersham Commission, established by President Herbert Hoover in 1929, investigated the issues with Prohibition and confirmed the need for modernization in law enforcement. Ultimately, Prohibition was abandoned in 1933, and the Twenty-first Amendment effectively repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.

Medicinal alcohol sales

The manufacture, importation, sale, and transport of alcohol were made illegal in the United States in 1920 with the Eighteenth Amendment. However, the amendment did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol, and medicinal alcohol could be prescribed by doctors and sold by pharmacists.

Medicinal alcohol was easily accessible during the 1920s. Within six months of Prohibition, over 15,000 doctors and 57,000 pharmacists were licensed to prescribe or sell medicinal alcohol. It was not difficult for people to forge prescriptions at pharmacies. Bootleggers bought prescription forms from unscrupulous doctors and mounted widespread scams. In 1931, a scam involving 400 pharmacists and 1,000 doctors was uncovered, but only 12 doctors and 13 pharmacists were indicted, and those charged faced only a $50 fine.

Physicians wrote an estimated 11 million prescriptions a year throughout the 1920s, and one doctor was cited for writing 475 prescriptions for whiskey in a single day. Historian Paula Mejia speculates that Charles R. Walgreen, of Walgreens, expanded from 20 stores to 525 during the 1920s thanks to medicinal alcohol sales.

The availability of medicinal alcohol meant that Prohibition primarily targeted the working-class poor. Historian Lizabeth Cohen writes: "A rich family could have a cellar full of liquor and get by, it seemed, but if a poor family had one bottle of home-brew, there would be trouble." Working-class people were angered by the fact that their employers could drink from private caches while they, the employees, could not.

The consumption of alcohol per capita during Prohibition was lower than it had been previously. However, it is difficult to know how drinking was distributed across the population. While some sources claim that Americans drank less alcohol during the 1920s and 1930s than popular fiction of the time depicted, others suggest that spirits were more available during Prohibition due to the emergence of bootlegging and speakeasies.

Homebrewing

One popular method of homebrewing during the 1920s was the use of "alky cookers" or small stills. In Chicago, the Genna brothers gang provided hundreds of families with one-gallon copper stills to make liquor in their kitchens. The process typically involved fermenting a "mash" from corn sugar, fruit, beets, or even potato peels, producing high-proof alcohol. This alcohol was then mixed with glycerin and juniper oil for flavouring. To dilute the potent liquid, it was often mixed with water, creating a crude form of gin, known as "bathtub gin". While this gin was unpleasant-tasting, it was used in speakeasies, mixed with various ingredients to mask the flavour, leading to the rise in popularity of cocktails during the Prohibition era.

Another method of homebrewing involved corrupting legal brewers who were producing "near beer", which contained very low levels of alcohol. Gangsters would pay cash to these brewers to obtain the higher-percentage alcohol beer, which could then be sold illegally. Chicago racketeer Johnny Torrio, for example, partnered with legitimate brewer Joseph Stenson to manufacture and distribute illegal beer to speakeasies.

It is important to note that the quality and safety of homebrewed alcohol during the 1920s varied greatly. Some bootleggers added dangerous additives, such as wood alcohol, which could cause nerve damage, blindness, or even death. Despite the risks, the demand for alcohol during Prohibition led many people to engage in homebrewing, either for personal consumption or as a lucrative business venture.

Bathtub gin

During the Prohibition era in the United States, many people turned to home-distilling to make their own alcohol. This often resulted in high-proof, rough-tasting, and toxic drinks, commonly known as "bathtub gin".

To make bathtub gin, people would ferment raw materials such as corn sugar, or fruit, beets, and even potato peels. This would be mixed with water and yeast and left to sit for about a week or two. When the yeast reacts with the sugar, it creates alcohol, resulting in an alcoholic, fermented liquid, essentially a type of wine or beer.

Once the alcohol was produced, it was blended with water and often infused with spices, citrus rinds, or put in barrels to improve the taste. To make gin specifically, juniper berries were added for flavouring. However, the homemade liquor made during this time often had a bad taste and was not suitable for drinking straight.

The term "bathtub gin" comes from the practice of mixing and diluting the alcohol. The bottles used for the homemade liquor were often too tall to fit under the kitchen sink faucet, so people would use the bathtub faucet instead. This step of diluting the alcohol with water was necessary to turn the highly potent liquid into a form of gin.

While the term "bathtub gin" implies that the alcohol was distilled in a bathtub, this is unlikely to be true. Distillation requires a closed apparatus, which a bathtub, as an open vessel, cannot provide.

Speakeasies

During the Prohibition era in the United States, the 18th Amendment prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. However, this didn't stop people from finding creative ways to continue drinking. "Speakeasies", also known as "blind pigs" or "blind tigers", emerged as illicit establishments that sold alcohol. The term "speakeasy" dates back to at least 1837 and possibly earlier, but it became commonly associated with these secret bars during Prohibition.

Organized crime syndicates flourished during this time, coordinating the activities within the black-market alcohol industry. Bootleggers, who supplied the speakeasies, would often dilute their liquor with water to increase profits. Speakeasies welcomed both men and women as patrons, doing away with the previous segregation of drinking establishments.

The proliferation of speakeasies during Prohibition highlights the ingenuity and determination of Americans to circumvent the restrictions on alcohol. However, with the end of Prohibition in 1933, speakeasies largely disappeared, and the era of clandestine drinking came to a close.

Frequently asked questions