Seventy-Five Years Ago: Beer = Money

Counting Down to April 7, the Anniversary of the Return of Legal Beer

People who supported Prohibition (the "drys") had lobbied against the return of beer by accusing the "wets" of over-estimating the economic impact of legal beer. The wets enjoyed the last laugh -- and did so all the way to the bank: By March 28, the brewers in just one city, Milwaukee, had processed $4 million dollars in orders. (That's about $62 milllion in 2006 dollars.) And they'd already paid more than $50,000 in federal taxes ($777,0000 in 2006 dollars).