Victory Brewing Co. :: Taste Victory

Back in November when we ceased to permit smoking within Victory Brewing Company in order to ensure an environment most conducive to the full enjoyment of our flavorful beers, we cringed whenever the terms “ban” or “prohibition” were applied to our move. But, the fact remains that we were prohibiting a specific behavior, one that many individuals find comforting and pleasurable. Like we find a glass of beer to be.

“Pro-Germanism is the only froth from the German's beer saloon. Our German Socialist Party and the German American Alliance are the spawn of the saloon. . . . Prohibition is the infallible submarine chaser.” - Sinclair, A.: The Era of Excess, Boston: Harper Collins (1962)

"A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." - Abraham Lincoln (Dec. 8, 1840)

So, as advocates of responsible social alcohol appreciation, were we being two faced in halting a privilege previously enjoyed by a certain percentage of patrons? We can’t answer that question. You can, if you choose to. In the end, your opinion would hopefully be formed of rational, objective observation of the pros and cons of the situation. Your’s might be an internal version of the external debate that has inflamed this country at points since the late 1800’s over to permit or deny the citizens of the United States the privilege to consume alcohol.

"Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose." - Herbert Hoover (1919)

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." - Albert Einstein (1921)

The debate is shaded with nuance. Do all citizens exhibit the same level of responsibility in the exercise of their privilege to enjoy alcoholic beverages, perhaps being chief among them. With these devils in such details, we have witnessed fervent opinions on both sides of the debate. Unabashed zealots and sober-minded (pardon the pun) observers of human behavior have weighed in on the subject. Various perspectives are illustrated here in telling quotes.

"The CURSE is upon us, and there is but one CURE: Total Abstinence, by the help of God, for the Individual, and Prohibition for the State."- T. S. Arthur (Grappling With The Monster)

“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.” - Robert Frost (1935)

Though we have our opinion on the subject, as witnessed in the reminder we have printed on all of our case cartons since our beginning (“Resist Prohibition”) we feel that exposing opinions expressed in this long debate is the best way to prepare us all for Victory Over Prohibition Day, April 6. This way you can decide to celebrate the day and the privileges it represents, or curse the misguided souls of your fellow citizens and their elected legislators.

Help us put this deserving holiday well on its way to national holiday status by celebrating April 6 as Victory Over Prohibition Day.

April 7, 1933 was the date that 3.2% beer was made legal for Americans to consume, long before the December date that the full repeal of Prohibition took place. Rather than wait to midnight of April 6, we’ll begin the celebration of this important personal freedom early, and in many venues.

Our great, pre-Prohibition lager, Throwback Lager, will be flowing along with fun and surprises at many popular establishments throughout the Philadelphia area. Our toast to the President that ended Prohibition, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at 9 pm that evening should launch the crowds into exhuberent appreciation of their frothy freedom.

Beyond here at Victory Brewing Company, you can enjoy both some delicious Throwback Lager and these festivities at all locations of P.J. Whelihan’s Pub in New Jersey, and all locations of Kildare’s Pub.

Invite your friends to join you at a location of your choice with our slick, e-invite cards, specific for each location, which you can customize with your own greeting and message. This free service can be found at: http://pub46.bravenet.com/postcard/post.php?usernum=3924412245.

Don’t wait until Hallmark recognizes this great holiday and you start getting cards from Aunt Beatrice in Des Moines, get set to celebrate the day here and now!

"With preachers announcing that the millennium lay at hand, men and women began to swear off hard spirits; the yearning for perfection drew them until they were pledging total abstinence. Prohibition offered them [fundamentalists] their one link to national authority, the one public commitment to resisting moral decay."- James Morone ( Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History)

“The prohibition law, written for weaklings and derelicts, has divided the nation, like Gaul, into three parts -- wets, drys, and hypocrites.” - Florence Sabin

“The focus of the League's indictments included not simply alcohol, but the saloon itself, as the purveyor of spirits. The myriad League publications denounced the saloon for "annually sending thousands of our youths to destruction, for corrupting politics, dissipating workmen's wages, leading astray 60,000 girls each year into lives of immorality and banishing children from school." - Odegard (1928)

“There was general prevalence of drinking in homes, clubs and hotels.... Throughout the country people of wealth, businessmen and professional men and their families, and the higher paid workingmen and their families, are drinking in large numbers in open flouting of the law. And neither Congress nor the states set up adequate machinery or appropriated sufficient funds for the enforcement of the prohibitory legislation. Federal and state legislation, as a matter of fact, strove to satisfy so that, as it was aptly said, the drys had their prohibition law and the wets had their liquor.”- Hu (1950)

"Liquor is a menace to patriotism because it puts beer before country." - Wayne Wheeler (1928)

“T he 18th Amendment could not have been passed without the support of the psychologically tolerant, made temporarily intolerant by the stress of war. But when the moderates deserted the drys in the time of peace, the hard core of the movement was revealed.” – Sinclair, A.: The Era of Excess, Boston: Harper Collins (1962)

“Drink and tobacco are the great separatists [sic] between men and women. Once they used these things together, but woman's evolution has carried her beyond them; man will climb to the same level . . . but meanwhile ... the fact that he permits himself fleshly indulgence that he would deprecate in her, makes their planes different, giving her an instinct of revulsion.”-- Furnas, J. C.: The Life and Times of the Late Demon Rum, New York City: Putnam (1965)

“I congratulate this convention for having had the courage, fearlessly to write into its declaration of principles what an overwhelming majority here assembled really thinks about the 18th Amendment. This convention wants repeal. Your candidate wants repeal. And I am confident that the United States of America wants repeal.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt nomination address (July 2, 1932)

Current seasonal beers on tap at Victory Brewing Company include:

Throwback Lager
Crisp, lighter in body, yet still full...

Before Prohibition, thirst quenching lagers were firm and substantial, and enjoyed in huge volumes. This recipe incorporates yeast from the C. Schmidt Brewery of Philadelphia and a small portion of brewer's corn to recreate an 'industrial' lager of the turn of the century. Tasty history!

Malts: 2 row German malts and brewer's flaked corn
Hops: German whole flowers
Alcohol by volume: 5.3%
To be tapped April 6!

St. Boisterous Hellerbock
A hearty, golden lager...

Our St. Boisterous is a full bodied lager beer of exuberant and robust character. His muscle-man body comes from decocted German malts and noble German hops. Lagered long and cold, he emerges smooth and seductive, with a malty sweet charm all of his own. This classic German ‘maibock' style will warm your heart.

Malts: 2 row Pilsner and Vienna German malt
Hops: German whole flowers
Alcohol by volume: 7.4%

Whirlwind Witbier
Refreshing with a citrus-like snap...

Offering a tamed tempest of flavors both spicy and sublime Whirlwind is a refreshing interpretation of the classic, Belgian 'white beer' style. Imported Belgian yeast charges Whirlwind with an energy all of its own.
Make Whirlwind your spring fling & summer love!

Malts: imported, German malts, unmalted wheat & oats
Hops: European whole flowers
Alcohol by Vol: approx. 5.2%