"Volstead Fever: Prohibition in Minnesota," a new documentary about the dry times, will premier tomorrow night in New Ulm's Turner Hall, the Journal reports in Prohibition movie premier Tuesday.
The sacred local brewery that snuggles in the German American Disneyland makes a cameo appearance in the flick:
In April 1923, federal agents tested some Schell's beverages produced under a government permit authorizing cereal beverages containing less than one half of one percent of alcohol.
Agents claimed tests showed alcohol contents slightly exceeded the allowed percentage.
Schell Brewing claimed that if the tests were right, the slight increase was unintentional and due to the light winter and spring beverage demand and that the beverages tests were unusually old.
Schell's was found not guilty of any law violation and charges were dropped by a federal judge.
Schell's Brewmaster Ted Marti said federal agents were at the brewery almost every week back then, checking for alcohol level violations.
Marti and Elmer Rolloff Jr. were interviewed for the PPT documentary at Schell's.
The documentary, produced by Appleton-based Pioneer Public Television (PPT), gave people in Brown County a chance to recall when they ran their own stills south of town. Essig and Springfield were hot spots:
"Lots of moonshine was made on alcohol stills on farms south of Essig and out in the woods, south of the Cottonwood River," Rolloff added.
Alcohol raids were by local and federal law enforcement were common in that era.
"Sometimes, they shot up the bottles on the site," Rolloff said.
A Burnstown Township farm south of Springfield generated an estimated 400 gallons of alcohol a day, according to Dan Hoisington's historical research that appeared on a Lifestyle page of the Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004 edition of The Journal.
A still near Essig that was raided included a large number of railroad cars filled with still equipment, according to Brown County Historical Society files. The property where the still was located was owned by Howard Gimbel, reportedly a member of Al Capone's gang.
. . ."Rum runners had a mail order business on the side....My dad ordered a new Remington 12-guage shotgun that's still in the family," Rolloff said.
Of course, people in Southern Minnesota haven't distilled their own corn, save in ethanol plants, since Prohibition was repealed, despite what readers may have heard or drunk over at the neighbor's place. All of the wisdom gained about making liquor during the Noble Experiment simply vanished with the melting snows in the spring of 1934.
Photo: Andrew Volstead's place in Granite Falls.
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