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TLDR: * Because beer was consumed as a source of energy rather than as an alternative to water, and high alcohol content was favored, it seems like the answer
by aardvark291 10y ago
TLDR:
* Because beer was consumed as a source of energy rather than as an alternative to water, and high alcohol content was favored, it seems like the answer is "Yes."
* However, it's unclear whether early brewers could make drinkable beer at high ABV, throwing this conclusion into doubt.
- pkulak 10y ago* But even if they couldn't hit the high ABV numbers, they were still drinking at least 3% beer pretty much all day long. From what I've read, this behavior pretty much continued straight through until prohibition in the States. Usually a cider before about lunch, then beer and spirits.
- village-idiot 10y agoFrom what I understand prohibition was the result of revolutionary drinking habits meeting up with increasing supplies of industrialized and cheap high alcohol beer and spirits.
- ctdonath 10y agoAs urban populations grew, rural grain farmers soon found that transporting spirits was a far more profitable per-volume process than raw dry grains. BTW: that eventually led to institutionalizing the Southern US's illegal "moonshine culture", which as the automobile became commonplace started using cars for smuggling spirits, which then led to car racing (smugglers had powerful vehicles and talented drivers) which eventually manifested as NASCAR.
- ctdonath 10y agoI'm noticing this thread is completely missing the point that common fruit drinks (high calorie, nutritious, safe origin), which was a convenient way of storing fruit (just squeeze & filter), would immediately start fermenting. Other than water (often unsafe) or milk (goes bad quickly), about the only shelf-stable beverages were self-fermenting.