I Feel Absolutely Cheated.

I did it.

Dry January. I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol for an entire month. Well 30 days…I may have had a few on the 31st. But 30 days is good and yeah I’ve been cheated.

I lost no weight, my sleep didn’t improve, I didn’t feel any better, and to be honest I didn’t save any money. You’re like oh I’m not drinking I’ll reward myself, buy this / eat that. So if anything I’m fatter to. Scam.

A friend told me of another concept called damp January. Where you don’t stop drinking, but it’s no unnecessary drinking. So only if you go out to a pub or bar, none at home. I might try that next year we’ll see. Anyway, rant over and onto business.

In the spirit of dry January lets talk prohibition…

In America, also known as the nation’s 13-year social experiment in collective self-denial, began on January 17, 1920. Well it sort of began in 1917. During the war, all whisky production was ceased in favour of things more suited to war times but some states did not resume production after the war was over. These were called the dry states. Dry state? Sounds like this morning's hangover. 

The nation's noble crusade to cleanse the world of demon booze seemed like a great idea to some—mainly the peeps who've never figured the antidote to the bad times. For others, particularly those in the American whiskey business, it was less ‘divine intervention, and more ‘economic gut punch’

Before Prohibition, American whiskey was thriving. Brands like Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester, and Jim Beam were household names, each pouring out multitudes of alcohol to put the ‘roaring’ into the twenties. But then, the Volstead Act, a federal bill enforcing Prohibition. Whiskey distillers suddenly found themselves in a crisis and much like Bear Grylls they had to improve, adapt, overcome. 

Some distilleries decided to go legit, pivoting to medicinal whiskey. Yes, forget lemsip or calpol, bring on the Jim Beam. Fun side note. The old Irish cure for a cold starts with you putting a hat on one corner of the bed and drinking until you can see it on both sides! Anyway, back to America. 

The diagnosis to be able to enjoy this new completely different medicinal whiskey could be high blood pressure, pneumonia or digestive problems. So basically any diagnosis. This medicinal whiskey was of course exactly the same as before Prohibition. There of course many distilleries that did shut down altogether choosing to go with the law and halt production but there were also others that turned to crime. Oooooo.

Enter the world of bootleggers, speakeasies, and gangsters. Al Capone became the poster boy for the Prohibition underworld, making a fortune supplying thirsty Americans with illegal whiskey. But not all whiskey lovers were criminals. Some were just desperate innovators. The distillery that would later become Maker’s Mark converted its operations to produce sacramental wine. Heaven Hill Distillery, founded in 1935 after Prohibition’s repeal, benefited from the chaos by snapping up unused distilling equipment.

Prohibition limped along until December 5, 1933, when the 21st Amendment mercifully repealed it. Overnight, America rediscovered the joy of happy hour, and whiskey distilleries rushed to rebuild their empires. And Scotch drinkers went back to pouring scorn on the sweeter and weaker American copy. Normality restored.