Whisky · History · Short entry

US Prohibition

National Prohibition in the United States ran from 17 January 1920 until the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on 5 December 1933. It shut the largest export market for Irish whiskey.

Location: United States, United States of America

1920-1933

The Eighteenth Amendment (ratified 1919, effective 17 January 1920) and the Volstead Act banned the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors; the Twenty-first Amendment repealed it on 5 December 1933.

Why it mattered

American distilling largely stopped, and the main export market for Irish pot still whiskey closed.

Dates and consequences

Congress proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on 18 December 1917; its ratification was certified as of 16 January 1919, and it took effect, with the National Prohibition (Volstead) Act, on 17 January 1920. The Twenty-first Amendment, proposed on 20 February 1933 and ratified by state conventions, was certified on 5 December 1933; its first section repealed the Eighteenth.

The Irish Whiskey technical file describes the United States as the largest export market for Irish pot still whiskey before Prohibition and says the Irish industry was unable to profit from repeal in 1933, having run down its stocks, while Scottish blenders were ready to expand.

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