Despite eventual success, their venture takes a legal turn when Curly inadvertently sells a bottle to an undercover detective at an inflated price, resulting in their incarceration.

While serving time on the rock pile, they encounter a fellow inmate and an old acquaintance, Percy Pomeroy, with whom they collaborate on a prison break.

[1] When the Stooges drop their iron balls chained to their legs, the NBC Chimes are heard, a gag recycled from the team's 1937 short Back to the Woods.

Beer Barrel Polecats was filmed over two days on April 25–26, 1945, several months after Curly Howard suffered a minor stroke.

[1] However, according to threestooges.net, a possible lawsuit by comedian Harold Lloyd resulted in a hastily reworked script; this prompted the use of older footage in the film, and was not related to Curly's illness.