Like meeting with friends for drinks? Enjoy toasting the New Year with a glass of Champagne or order a Margarita while sitting by the pool on a hot summer day?
If so, you owe a big thanks to Repeal Day. It was a big deal on December 5, 1933 when the 21st Ammendent to the Constitution was ratified, making it legal to drink again. People came out into the streets to celebrate when the news made headlines and was broadcast on the radio.
It had been more than a decade when America went dry on January 17, 1920 with the passage of the Volstead Act, outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. Almost immediately the conseuqnces were dire. Before Prohibition forced thousands of people out of work, 89 distilleries lined Main Street in downtown Louisville. Poof, those jobs were gone.
Not many people were for the law even at the beginning and its appeal lessened with each passing year.
According to the Mob History Museum website, as early as 1922, 40 percent of people polled by Literary Digest magazine were for modifying the National Prohibition Act (regulating alcohol) and 20 percent backed repealing the 18th Amendment. In 1926, 81 percent of people polled by the Newspaper Enterprise Association favored modifying the Prohibition statute or outright repeal of the amendment. Indeed, as time went on, the only people who really really liked Prohibition besides the most dedicated teetotaler were guys like Al Capone who was earning as much as $60 million to as high as $100 million a year from bootlegging. All that money was corrupt and dangerous with violent gang murders including the famous Valentine’s Day Massacre.
So why isn’t Repeal Day on everyone’s calendar? Afterall, both National Pfeffernuesse Day (pfeffermuesses, in case you don’t know, are a type of German cookie) and National Fried Shrimp Day are among the many rather strange holidyays that are national holidays. But Repeal Day has faded into obscurity.
At least in most cities throughout the U.S.
But in Louisville, where bourbon is king, Repeal Day is being celebrated.
Buzzard’s Roost Sipping Whiskey is literally rolling out the barrel to celebrate the 91th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition.
Buzzard’s Roost also is raising a glass to Repeal with the release of a new single-barrel Founders 8-Year-Old Bourbon on Thursday, Dec. 5
When & Thursday, Dec. 5 at 11 a.m.
Where Barrel Roll kicks off at Buzzard’s Roost, 624 W. Main Stt at 6th St.
Who Buzzard’s Roost Co-founders Jason Brauner and Judy Hollis Jones and Lead Distiller Ethan Spalding will lead the barrel-roll parade down
Main Street.
Hot Sauce Brass Band will lead a second line for all barrel roll participants.
Back at the Buzzard’s Roost Tasting Room & Distillery, tastes of the new
Founders 8- Year-Old Single Barrel Bourbon will be available and the bar will be open.
Buzzard’s Roost Founders; 8-Year-Old Single Barrel Bourbon
- 115.6 Proof
- Available only at the Buzzard’s Roost Tasting Room & Distillery ($150 per bottle)
Visuals Judy and Jason leading the barrel roll down Main Street, followed by the
Hot Sauce Brass Band and bar-towel-waving crowd
The Buzzard’s Roost team will be dressed in 1920s Prohibition-era garb, with plenty of flapper dresses, fringe and bow ties and bowler hats!
Jason Brauner and Ethan Spalding rolling the barrel down the sidewalk
and across the street
