April 7 marks the anniversary of the day beer was legally allowed to be manufactured and sold following the end of Prohibition in the US.
On March 22, 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt, allowing the manufacture and sale of beer that contained up to 4% alcohol by volume and some wines.
Although Prohibition remained in place for a few more months, the ability to drink beer and wine was still worth celebrating.
Beer has a close relationship to tax, and here are a few more interesting facts about beer to celebrate its anniversary.
Egypt was the first civilization to tax beer, with Queen Cleopatra putting a tax on it allegedly to curb public drunkenness and raise money for her navy.
In the US, beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage, but the government collects more money from liquor sales due to the way alcohol is taxed.
Congress imposed an excise tax on beer to help fund the Civil War, and it remains a significant revenue generator today, bringing in billions of dollars each year.
The Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 limited the ingredients used to make beer in Germany to barley malt, hops, yeast, and water, and allowed the government to tax beer.
Today, German beers are often labeled as being brewed according to this law, although it was largely gutted when Germany became part of the European Union.
Meanwhile, 99% of all beer cans and 97% of all soft drink cans are made of aluminum, and the tariffs on steel and aluminum signed into law in 2018 have generated over $1.9 billion, with only a small fraction going to the US government.