A Brewtastic Thanksgiving

around lunchtime on Thursday, the 22nd of November 2007 by Chad

From current events over at the Beeripedia

So where did the fable of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer, or the notion that the first Thanksgiving was a cheery, beery good time come from? Once again, a look at Beer & Food: An American History gives strong clues.
In the early years after Repeal, the U.S. brewing industry was running scared. What if the feds reenacted Prohibition? Since saloons were frowned upon (including even the use of the word, “saloon”) and replaced by taverns, and draft beer was on its way to being replaced by containerized beer coming into homes in bottles and finally cans in 1935, beer also had to shed its image as either an insidious instrument of the old German Kaiser (a popular bit of lingering Prohibitionists’ nonsense) and the more contemporary negative image as a dirty money maker of bootlegging/mobster groups. In other words, beer had to be “gussied up” and made respectable.
The United Brewers Industrial Foundation stepped in to make beer “friendly,” once again touting it as the “drink of moderation.” The U.B.I.F. was funded by the United States Brewers Association after the U.S.B.A. had conducted a survey of Americans’ attitudes toward beer and the brewing industry. The survey’s disheartening conclusions focused the ultimate goal of the U.B.I.F. on the paramount need to establish an extensive public relations campaign on beer’s benefits. As part of their national PR effort, the organization began to publish a series of informative booklets and run extensive ads in popular magazines on beer and its positive aspects. Part of the U.B.I.F’s effort was evident in the blossoming of recipes that made use of beer as an ingredient, as explained in Beer & Food.
Another approach was a series of informative cartoons that were offered to media outlets for free that demonstrated how beer was so interwoven with the history of the U.S.A. In Part III, we’ll take a look at some of these cartoons and point out some of the biggest white lies that the U.S.B.A. and its propaganda arm, the U.B.I.F. could muster that helped bridge the connection between beer and the history of our nation, the portrayal of the country’s most influential forefathers as lusty beer drinkers, and the organizations’ claims as to how important the brewing industry was to the tax revenues of our country. At the time, the word “propaganda” was not as pejorative in meaning as it is today, and was widely used by both trade organizations in expressing what the mission of both organizations was— selling beer.
After almost 14 years of Prohibition, can you really blame the brewing industry for sowing the seeds of today’s beer folklore? I say their efforts worked, considering the fact that most of you readers probably have a beer or two in your refrigerator right now.