100 years ago, the Volstead Act

[john k]

One hundred years ago our elected officials passed The Volstead Act.   The Prohibition of Alcohol.   Brewerys closed,  bars closed.  Normally honest people paid fines and went to jail.   A long time of lawlessness began.  Al Capone and others made tons of money.  Booze was transported south from our northern neighbor, Canada.  Vineyards were plowed up, until they decided to try marketing grape jelly, and grape juice.   Before WWII most jelly and jams were made at home in the kitchen.   Think of the WWI veterans getting home and find the taverns boarded up, and being arrested for buying a drink.  Fun times, those Roaring Twenties.  Comments?

[Lance]

Your statement is based on too much Government Approved CowLedge taught history.

I've endured presentations by 30 year old Prohibition Experts with Degrees in History who storied on about how my 5th cousin on Mom's side mounted a machine gun on the stern of his boat and shot at the Coast Guard.  He couldn't explain why the Coasties didn't just stop by Milt's house the next day and beat him to a red ooze.  The credentialed idiot with a Degree in History never knew there was a Pre Miranda America.  He also stored on about a German Sub on Lake Ontario owned by Rum Runners launching liquor filled torpedos onto the shore for delivery. 

There are 5 identical houses on Rock View Terrace, the center one has a cellar under the porch.  My old man had it built that way so his still could live under the porch and produce sufficient alcohol to pay for the house.  Neighbors wondered for years why his carp pond in the yard never froze in Winter.

Odenbach's Summer Hotel and downtown bar closed.  2 of the 4 brothers went into the Lake Tug business and rock quarrying and eventually built 72 ocean going tankers on a pond next to the Lake thanks to Prohibition. 

Yes, there was 1 German Sub on Lake Ontario.  US Navy Tug Iroquois brought the new unused sub to Rochester under tow through the locks on the St Laurence tied up at Rochester and John Henry Odenbach got aboard for days while it was tied up and borrowed every bit of engineering he could, much of which he'd employ 10 years later rebuilding a hull into Dolomite 1 a bulk carrier that hauled coal North and Bonded Wheat South to Brooklyn.

Prohibition created a lot of jobs and increased alcohol consumption considerably by US citizens.
It was a time of opportunity and profit.

[john k]

Wow, quite a compliment, as I never saw the inside of a college.  However my father ran away from the farm, and ended up in Chicago in 1927.   So I got his stories first hand of the speakeasys, Capone and gang rolling down the street in 3 identical Cadillacs.   Have pictures in 1920s Mechanix Illustrated magazines of confiscated rum runner boats, with T-head engines, used because they were quiet and powerful.  Also have seen the remnants of my grandfathers still, which was hurriedly buried after the local sheriff got wind of it.  Have a copy of the local newspaper, 1928, showing local men serving time for brewing moonshine.  Sorry my sidebar of Welchs didn't ring true for you.   Have a good one. 

[Lance]

Prohibition and stills were largely regional in nature for want of a better term. 

Sears, Montgomery Ward and hundreds of others sold block tin lined copper stills by the thousands, I still have one that was employed well by the 108th NY War of Northern Aggression reenactors, who were dumb or drunk enough to burn the block tin off by using it over an open fire.  I was nearly expelled from 7th grade for setting up a still in Science which produced quality product according to 2 teachers who sampled it and appreciated my knowledge of the process sufficiently to keep the District from sending me down the road.  Hey, nobody posted any rule about not making double pass liker for the science fair and nobody else was using all that glass.

When I moved on to boy's prison high school I made a little money on the beer side.  I had roughly 100 gallons working under the auditorium for 2 years, since it afforded ideal cellar temperatures, and quality beer wasn't necessary to keep classmates happy.  A lot of the guys carried 12 ounce milk cartons all day.  It was funny on assembly days when the alcy teachers were getting wiffs of fermenting beer via the air vents under every 3rd seat and jonsing for a beer.  Fortunately most didn't understand "fresh" air was blown into the auditorium via the pressurized cellar.

Vinyards being ripped out for Prohibition is a bit of a stretch for me.  Some grapes were grown around here for years, and they all went to Gerber, Beachnut and Duffy Mott.  From my recall, vines are only productive for a limited number of years and then get replaced.  As I recall it's a two step deal since a vine on new roots takes about 2 or 3 years to be productive.  First and sometimes second replacement will be a new vine grafted to an established root.  If it takes the vine is producing in 1 year. 
Wine grapes tend to be different variety from Jelly grapes too. 
I'd say probably 100 new varietys of grape have been developed by Cornell alone since I was a kid.  Today we grow apples on what look like grape vines on wire about 100 acres of which are on old grape land. 

I've retired from Jelly making, and given my lightning mixer to a lady who sends her husband over to borrow a small compressor to power it every year.
BTW, you can make an excellent grape, cherry, strawberry or mint jelly from apple cider.  Lot less labor and lower cost too.
Personally I always liked Shimmel's commercial grape jelly better than Welches.

[fatfillup]

Ah, Prohibition, the poster child for unintended consequences. 

[eborcim]

I prefer butters over jellies.

[ken w.]

I prefer jam myself. I made a pile of red & black raspberry this year.