CONTRABANDIT

StillFire Brewing’s home city of Suwanee is celebrated its 75th Anniversary on Sept 21st, 2024. One of the first official acts of the new city was to legalize beer sales. In other words the residents of the land that is now Suwanee didn’t experience the benefits of the repeal of Prohibition until 1949 16 years after it was ratified. In fact Georgia as a state didn’t even hold a vote to ratify the 21st Amendment until well after it was ratified by the required number of states on Dec 5 1933. When our friends on the Suwanee City Council asked us to brew a special beer for their annual Suwanee Fest they pointed out this historical oddity. As soon as we heard these details a cool concept emerged. Not only would we brew a Pre-Prohibition Beer similar to what was served in the early 1900s we would bring in our good friend Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment Brewery to collaborate with us Besides being a great brewer Shaun has the added gravitas of naming his entire brewing company after this piece of legislation. We used a base of American 6-row barley the native barley European immigrant brewers first crafted American beer with in the 1800s and 1900s. The brewers discovered the thicker husk of 6-row barley yields a grainy flavor unless a husk-less cereal grain is added. Shaun suggested using the most abundant and traditional American grain corn as a way to lighten the body of the beer just as generations of brewers before us in the USA did. For the hop we chose Perle a traditional hop that came over from Europe grown in the USA and was used in many of the first North American Lagers. The result is a clean crisp golden lager with a wisp of corn sweetness and a pleasant flowery hop aroma.