How America’s Iconic Brewers Survived Prohibition
The 13-year ban on beer production during Prohibition forced America’s biggest brewers to find creative ways to remain in business.
Of the more than 1,300 brewers in operation in 1915, no more than 100 survived. However, they included some of the most iconic names in brewing—such as Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Miller, Pabst and Yuengling.
“What separated the companies that made it from the ones that didn’t is what they had to begin with at the start of Prohibition,” Ogle says. “The Pabst, Busch and Miller families had all invested in real estate holdings across the United States.” And they had also expanded into nonalcoholic drinks two decades before Prohibition. (History)