The First Night Prohibition Ended Was Called “New Beer’s Eve”

For lovers of all brews everywhere, the years of 1920 to 1933 were incredibly sad times. This was the period of the Prohibition in the United States, where any and all forms of alcohol were verboten. Thankfully in 1933, the United States government came to their senses, and President Roosevelt decided that this frothy brew should once again flow freely in the taverns and bars of the country.

On this date in 1933, people lined up around the block at the doors of their favorite public house to prepare to imbibe the first legal brews in 13 years. Ever since that night, this day has been referred to as ‘New Beer’s Eve’, a precursor of ‘New Beers Day’. It was said that at 12:01 on 1933, Roosevelt stated “I think this would be a good time for a beer.” For such an auspicious patron, Anheuser-Busch pulled out all the stops, delivering the beer with their Clydesdale draw carriage directly to the Commander in Chief. The first 24 hours of the end of the prohibition saw an estimated 1.5 million gallons of beer consumed.

As of 2014 the US was 17th in consumption of beer, with the Czech Republic almost double that.

This is a list of countries ordered by annual per capita consumption of beer.

Rank	Country	Consumption per capita [1] (litres)	2013–2014 change (633–ml bottles)	Total national consumption (106 L)[A]	Year
1	Czech Republic	142.6	-7.3	1879	2014
2	Seychelles	114.6	7.8	11	2014
3	Austria	104.8	-1.7	894	2014
4	Germany	104.7	4.4	8441	2014
5	Namibia	104	-7.2	250	2014
6	Poland	97.8	0.1	3776	2014
7	Ireland	97	-0.5	454	2014
8	Lithuania	96.6	10.7	282	2014
9	Belize	93.8	-8.8	33	2014
10	Estonia	93.5	-5	123	2014
11	Gabon	88.9	22.3	150	2014
12	Romania	85.9	8.3	1689	2014
13	Spain	80.6	5.9	3729	2014
14	Finland	78.5	-2.7	430	2014
15	Latvia	78.2	4.6	156	2014
16	Panama	76.6	5.1	296	2014
17	United States	75.8	-0.3	24172	2014
18	Slovenia	75	0.8	155	2014
19	Australia	74.2	-0.9	1753	2014
20	Slovakia	74.1	0.3	402	2014
21	Croatia	72.5	-3.9	309	2014
22	Belgium	72	0	810	2014
23	Netherlands	71.4	2.6	1205	2014
24	Venezuela	70.8	1.2	2173	2014
25	Bulgaria	69.8	-5.1	503	2014
26	Russia	68.9		10062	2014
27	Brazil	68.3	5.2	13146	2014
28	United Kingdom	67.7	2.4	4375	2014
29	Republic of the Congo	66.6	-1.3	300	2014
30	Angola[2]	64.2		1160	2012
31	Hungary	63.3	1.9	626	2014
32	New Zealand	62.7	-2	282	2014
33	Montenegro	62.1	-7.2	39	2014
34	Denmark	61.9	1.9	350	2014
35	Botswana	61.8	46.6	137	2014
36	Iceland	61.8	1.9	20	2014
37	Ukraine[2]	61.6		2760	2012
38	Serbia[3]	60.3		43.2	2013
39	Canada[3]	60.3		212.0	2013
40	Mexico[2]	59.9		6890	2012
41	South Africa	58.4	-2	3150	2014
42	Switzerland[2]	58.3		460	2012
43	Bosnia and Herzegovina[2]	56.1		220	2012
44	Sweden[2]	52.7		480	2012
45	Argentina[4]	49		1980
46	Republic of Korea	45.8	6.5	2292	2014
47	Japan	42.6	-0.8	5407	2014
48	Vietnam[5]	42		3788	2016
49	China[2]	32		44683	2012
50	Italy[6]	29		1772	2011
51	Israel[7]	14
52	Turkey[8]	13
53	Kenya[9]	12
54	Uzbekistan[10]	11
55	Tanzania[9]	8
56	Uganda[9]	6
57	Sri Lanka[11]	2		50
58	India[12][13]	2		1400	2008

Sources:

DaysOfTheYear

Wikipedia