I hear that prohibition was a huge factor in the decline in quality in American beer in the early 20th century. The hoards of Germany immigrants in the 19th century established breweries (including Coors and Millers) that produced good-quality beer.<p>During prohibition, the breweries went out of business and the brewers found other occupations. After prohibition, the new breweries that popped up produced beer of much lower quality. They found that the American public was just happy to have beer, and was way less picky about the quality of that beer. You&#x27;d think that after only 15 years of no beer, the former quality would be re-established, but I guess there wasn&#x27;t a market for it anymore.<p>Same thing happened in California with the wine industry. It took decades after Prohibition before good quality wine returned. Those re-established wineries were producing some pretty terrible wines in their early years.