"21st Amendment" news and stories

On a sweltering summer afternoon, I took upon a Herculean task: instructing Asylum's Jake Goodrich about craft brew.

"I like drinking beer from bongs," the PBR fan told me, giving me flashbacks to college days spent swilling Natty Ice. I sighed. This would be a challenge.

However, I had an excellent training ground at my disposal. On Governors Island, a decommissioned military base a couple minutes from Manhattan by boat, awaited the annual New York Brewfest. The festival featured hundreds of beers, from hoppy IPAs to decadent stouts -- perfect for training Jake's palate. I hoped.

More after the jump...

Delicious on a 90-degree day. Photo: 21st Amendment Brewery

With summer spiking thermometers, few frigid beverages satisfy quite like unfiltered wheat beers, mellow and flavorful thirst-quenchers that drink as easy as fresh-squeezed lemonade.

But a great beer style is just a springboard for innovation, a belief held by Nico Freccia. About a decade ago, the founder of San Francisco's 21st Amendment Brewery was fooling around with home-brewed wheats. Since it was summertime, he tossed ripe red watermelon chunks into his fermenting suds. "I didn't think the flavor would come through very well because watermelon is mostly, well, water," Freccia said.

To his surprise, the experiment was a triumph. Within the cloudy wheat beer, the watermelon shone as bright as a klieg light in a foggy night, without mimicking a Jolly Rancher run amok. "It still tasted like beer," marvels Freccia. "I could drink several without feeling like I was drinking a Slurpee."

Here on Slashfood we celebrate all things having do with food and drink. However, if on this day in 1933, Utah had chosen not to ratify the 21st Amendment, we'd have far less to write about. That's because the 21st Amendment repealed the Volstead Act (aka the 18th Amendment) which prohibited the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol. Ah Prohibition, you were a dark and nasty period of history (well, so I've heard).

Thanks to Utah and the 21st Amendment, for the last 74 years, Americans have had the right to drink a beer with friends, have a glass of wine with dinner or even get rip roaring drunk every Saturday night. If you want to learn more about Prohibition and Repeal Day, check out this website that gives a nice summary of the history. And raise your glass, in appreciation of the fact that you can.

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