A slight tangent but Hogarth's "Beer Street and Gin Lane" (1751) documents a similar example of low grain prices resulting in massive, country-wide alcohol consumption in England. The subsequent government reaction and legislation did not go as far as American prohibition though.
It's that there's a shared history regarding alcohol consumption which is uniquely American in nature.
Prohibition is part of that unique experience, and very much a part of the explanation for the compression of the consumption distribution.