I found my next source, which I found very helpful, on the Wisconsin Historical Society page. The article is called “Brewing and Prohibition” which really gives me some good insight on how this state became so involved with brewing beer, and the toll prohibition took on it. I chose it because it talks a lot about immigrants, and why beer and brewing came to be so popular in Wisconsin, information I have been looking for.
This source does not really have any bias, and simply gives information that relates to this time of prohibition and the history of Wisconsin. It does a nice job of explaining what words mean, or what it is trying to say, by explaining it in common everyday English.
This source starts out explaining that before Wisconsin was known as the dairy land state it is today, it was a beer state. This answers one of my questions right off the bat, Wisconsin itself is known for brewing and beer, that is why people often relate colleges in Wisconsin to ‘party schools’. I found it interesting that this article said “Breweries were as much a part of Wisconsin communities as churches and schools”. This is interesting to me because things are very different in this day and age. Why was that the case? Breweries provided employment to workers, bought grain from farmers and they sponsored festivals, teams, and groups.
How did this beer crazy state come to be? That relates to many of the first immigrants, Germans. It kicked off mainly in Milwaukee, where many of these German immigrants were resorting to for religious and political freedom. They had a demand for ‘lager’ a German beer, which widened the industries’ need and demand in general. Not only did these immigrants demand a supply, but they supplied owners with money and time saving skills, which allowed the giant brewing industry to expand and thrive.
However, while all of this was happening, the controversies regarding alcohol consumption began to grow too. There were many mild laws passed in Wisconsin, with the attempt to control alcohol consumption and use. Such as the Graham Law, this made tavern owners responsible for selling alcohol to known drunks. It wasn’t until the national prohibition act in 1919, that action really took a toll. This caused breweries to find other products to make them profits. Some sold partial alcohol, such as malt syrup, this allowed people to brew at their own homes. Many breweries decided to start selling cheese, candy, or ice cream instead. This helped keep some of them in business through the hard years of prohibition.
I liked this source because it gave me a lot of new information. It provided me with information about the different laws that Wisconsin faced, and the different “coping mechanisms” each brewery used to try to survive the prohibition period. I also liked all the background it gave me on the German immigrant population, that is useful for my research as well. I would like to find some more specific information, with specific breweries and information about local Wisconsin breweries that are either still around, or not around, due to prohibition.
I felt like this source really seemed to get a lot of your questions answered. I also thought you did a good job summarizing it. I didn’t know what the breweries did while prohibition was going on so that was cool to learn that they sold other things. I would have discussed a little about of how you know this source is reliable and if you trust everything that was said. Otherwise I thought that you did a great job finding this source.
This is a good topic considering the “rep” that Wisconsin does have as being a beer state. You should have no trouble at all researching specific breweries and finding out what happened to them. I would suggest giving some more back ground information about your source. Was this source an article from the Wisconsin Historical Society or how was it documented? I also didn’t see anywhere that you talked about your research question, does this source help contribute to answering your research question?
I think that it might be interesting to go into to more about the Germans who first came to Wisconsin and if they helped create some of the more popular breweries that are here today, like you stated at the end I think that would be an interesting direction to go about.