John Jack Black

John "Jack" Black was a legendary brewmaster who operated a brewery on the Hudson River (c 1915) and later on the Canadian side of Lake Champlain during the Prohibition Era. He was born in Cicero, near Syracuse, New York; the exact date of his birth is not known. Parish records of the Black family were destroyed in 1882 when the local church in Cicero burnt to the ground. Diligent efforts to source all of these claims continue by brewing historians.
Black's father was a farmer who recognized early on that growing hops for local breweries was a profitable venture. Central New York state was an ideal place to grow hops and by 1850 New York State led the nation in hop production. James Fenimore Cooper wrote in Reminiscence of Mid-Victorian Cooperstown, "Those were the days when the hop was king, and the whole countryside was one great hop yard, and beautiful. It was the hop that built many of the big farmhouses, now abandoned. Many a farmer made the value of his farm out of a single good year’s crop." Like many regional farmers, Jack's father brewed beer for his farm workers and others and it was through this undertaking that Jack honed his skills as a brewmaster. More interested in brewing beer than farming, Jack started a small brewery in Cicero supplying Trask's Tavern. Jack Moran, also known as Jack Diamond or Leg's Diamond, controlled the bootlegging in Manhattan and upstate New York during the early days of Prohibition. The exact nature of the two Jacks' relationship is of course not documented. However, it is almost certain that Jack Black had to be in business with Leg's Moran in order to supply the New York market.
Legend has it that, during prohibition, Black moved his operation to the northern end of Lake Champlain across the Canadian boarder. Quebecers were the beneficiaries of this strategic move north but it is also believed that Black’s beer continued to flow through the taps at New York’s best speakeasies. Some say that during the summer months Jack employed false bottom barges to transport his brew down lake Champlain, through the Champlain Canal.
Speakeasies grew rapidly during these trying times. In New York City alone, it is said that 32,000 speakeasies were open for business in 1929, compared to half that number of legal saloons before Prohibition. Unlike his name sake, the flamboyant Jack (Leg's Diamond) Moran, Jack Black had a penchant for secrecy during Prohibition, a factor that has obscured records of Black's later life. On December 18, 1931 Moran was killed execution style in Albany, New York. It is not known exactly who killed or ordered the killing of Moran or if Jack Black suffered the same fate. Although Black's operation and his premium lager did not survive Prohibition the stories of this maverick brewmaster, who always kept one step ahead of the revenuers, lived on in taverns from Chazy to Manhattan, New York.
Prohibition beer
Pre-Prohibition American lager beer differed significantly from modern domestic pale lagers. It has been well documented that Prohibition style lager was more flavorful than today's commercial lagers. A sampling of recipes from that era by George Fix reveals higher flavor profiles and greater variety than experienced from this style today. A milder version of American lager was very popular on the West Coast and historically was called Western lager. Possibly the most famous was that brewed by Henry Weinhard.
During Prohibition the flow of "real" beer was known to be controlled by organized crime and was never in short supply, despite legislation. Notorious mob figures like Johnny Torrio and Al Capone, kept Chicago knee-deep in beer for the duration of the (supposed) dry years . However, no historical references to date have directly linked Jack Black with any mob figure in particular.

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