HEINEKEN / LAGER TOP / BY WILL SANSOM

Issue 28, 1 September 2011

By 1933, the inhabitants of New York had waited an agonising 14 years for a drink thanks to the enforced teetotalism of prohibition. The floodgates opened on 11 April when the act defining 'intoxicating liquors' was amended to allow the sale of beer up to 3.2% in strength. It was inevitable, however, that native breweries would struggle with the demand of entire cities suddenly wetting their whistle en masse, so it was a crafty Dutch beer brand which capitalised and came to the rescue. When newspapers had announced the repeal of prohibition, Dr Henry Pierre Heineken loaded a ship full of fresh beer and sent it from Holland to the US with strict orders to wait patiently off-shore until the ban was lifted. At that precise moment, the ship docked and Heineken became the first postprohibition beer to be imported into the bars and minds of the American public.