EXHIBITS
Utah Brews: The Untapped Story of Ogden’s Becker Brewing and Malting Company: Utah Goes Dry
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Utah Goes Dry
At the outset of the twentieth century, a massive push to curtail the consumption of alcohol swept the nation. Utah, like many other states, adopted their own laws to address this issue several years before the enactment of the National Prohibition Act (also known as the Volstead Act), which banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol nationwide in 1920. The growing support for local and national Prohibition, as the movement became known, had many in the brewing industry worried, including the Beckers.
The Becker’s first brushes with prohibition came in 1909, and then again in 1915, when the Utah Legislature approved several bills outlawing liquor. Fortunately for the brewers, Utah’s third governor, William Spry, vetoed both of these bills. In 1917, however, the dry forces in Utah finally triumphed when Utah’s fourth governor, Simon Bamberger, signed the Young Bill into law. The Young Bill officially outlawed the consumption, sale, and manufacture of any beverage containing more than one half of one percent alcohol in the state of Utah, effective August 1, 1917. But thanks to the early scares of 1909 and 1915, the Beckers were ready. They had made plans to continue their business in the event that Prohibition became a reality.
One of the most ambitious and drastic actions the Beckers took in the wake of state Prohibition was the construction of a new plant in Evanston, Wyoming, where alcohol was still legal. The new factory, which operated under the name Becker Brewing and Malting Company, manufactured and distributed beer to the remaining wet western states, specifically Nevada and Wyoming. Construction of the new brew plant began in the spring of 1917 and it opened in September of that same year; however, the brewery only operated for less than two years. The Becker Brewing and Malting Company closed the Evanston branch and sold off its assets by June 30, 1919, due to rising prohibition pressures across the nation (see document on the left). On July 22, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, which was set to take effect on January 16, 1920. While the Evanston plant had allowed the Beckers to manufacture beer for a little bit longer, they were now forced to rely on the Ogden plant’s production of nonalcoholic beverages for all business during Prohibition.
