TIL that 0.5% abv beer was allowed to be sold during Prohibition

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I know that is stupidly still N/A beer, but did any brewery actually stay in business during prohibition by selling 0.5% beer?

Saranac survived by making soda.

The estimates in the months leading up to the legalization of 3.2 abw beer in April, 1933 were that about 160-200 breweries (reports/articles vary) were still open and licensed to legally brew near beer. That’s out of the close to 1500 that existed in 1910 - before many of individual state prohibitions, WWI’s "Wartime Prohibition" and grain resistricts, and then full on National Prohibition.

Those near beer brewers were also, for the most part, the brewers ready with 3.2 beer on April 7 when many (but not all) states allowed beer to be sold - they simply were allowed to brew and ferment the beer without removing the alcohol in the months leading up to April.

Many of those breweries were also making "other products" - malt syrup, soft drinks, ice, etc., so whether their near beer sales alone kept them in business is debatable.