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I'll take this opportunity to try and bust the myth a bit more about people drinking alt because water wasn't safe: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comm

I'll take this opportunity to try and bust the myth a bit more about people drinking alt because water wasn't safe: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u5dxoy/how_did_medieval_europeans_stay_hydrated_drinking/i51hwa6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u5dxoy/how_d... TLDR; People drank ale all the time because water is boring to drink!

kevinmchugh 3y ago
I'm not entirely convinced by that. The author establishes that water sources exist, which is obviously true because you can't brew without it. But water is heavy, and hard to store. If you've gone to the trouble to fetch and move a couple gallons of water, you might reasonably prefer to inoculate it with yeast rather than whatever happens to take off in your barrel.
- quantified 3y ago
  I'd rather take the trouble to move a couple of gallons of ale than water. But more for the enjoyment.
version_five 3y ago
Is it actually possible to drink just beer? Isn't it a net dehydrator? I drink a lot of beer, but always end up drinking a ton of water, certainly way more than if I hadn't had any beer. If I just drank beer I think I'd feel horrible, no?
- porknubbins 3y ago
  Just a guess but I’ve heard medieval beer would’ve been low alcohol and I think most of the diuretic effect of alcoholic drinks is due to the body processing the alcohol. So it might be possible.
  - reillyse 3y ago
    There were many different strengths of beer which (often)corresponded to different runnings/washing’s of the malt. The initial wort has higher amounts of sugars/fermentables while the later washes have significantly less. It could get down to 2-3% which. As to being a diuretic I think people are confused about how that works. It’s not like adding minus water if you drink coffee or alcohol, eg you wouldn’t die of dehydration if all you had to drink was coffee or beer.
- coderintherye 3y ago
  The idea that beer (at least normal low alcohol content beer) dehydrates you is also something of a myth: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26702122/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26702122/
- bregma 3y ago
  Your daily beers would have been a "small" beer like the kind they served school children in Belgium until very recently [0]. Maybe 1.5% alcohol by volume tops. It's not the alcohol that prevents the spread of disease but the fact that the water gets boiled for hours during manufacture. By the time that's done you could have used water drawn from John Snow's well in London and it would be fine. [0] https://www.amazingbelgium.be/2016/08/till-70s-belgian-kids-got-to-drink-beer.html https://www.amazingbelgium.be/2016/08/till-70s-belgian-kids-...

kevinmchugh 3y ago

I'm not entirely convinced by that. The author establishes that water sources exist, which is obviously true because you can't brew without it. But water is heavy, and hard to store. If you've gone to the trouble to fetch and move a couple gallons of water, you might reasonably prefer to inoculate it with yeast rather than whatever happens to take off in your barrel.

quantified 3y ago
I'd rather take the trouble to move a couple of gallons of ale than water. But more for the enjoyment.

version_five 3y ago

Is it actually possible to drink just beer? Isn't it a net dehydrator? I drink a lot of beer, but always end up drinking a ton of water, certainly way more than if I hadn't had any beer. If I just drank beer I think I'd feel horrible, no?

porknubbins 3y ago
Just a guess but I’ve heard medieval beer would’ve been low alcohol and I think most of the diuretic effect of alcoholic drinks is due to the body processing the alcohol. So it might be possible.
- reillyse 3y ago
  There were many different strengths of beer which (often)corresponded to different runnings/washing’s of the malt. The initial wort has higher amounts of sugars/fermentables while the later washes have significantly less. It could get down to 2-3% which. As to being a diuretic I think people are confused about how that works. It’s not like adding minus water if you drink coffee or alcohol, eg you wouldn’t die of dehydration if all you had to drink was coffee or beer.
coderintherye 3y ago
The idea that beer (at least normal low alcohol content beer) dehydrates you is also something of a myth: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26702122/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26702122/
bregma 3y ago
Your daily beers would have been a "small" beer like the kind they served school children in Belgium until very recently [0]. Maybe 1.5% alcohol by volume tops. It's not the alcohol that prevents the spread of disease but the fact that the water gets boiled for hours during manufacture. By the time that's done you could have used water drawn from John Snow's well in London and it would be fine. [0] https://www.amazingbelgium.be/2016/08/till-70s-belgian-kids-got-to-drink-beer.html https://www.amazingbelgium.be/2016/08/till-70s-belgian-kids-...