3 ms·

> Think about it logically, you can not brew bear from water that is contaminated in the first place. My assumption is that the contamination is biological, wh

> Think about it logically, you can not brew bear from water that is contaminated in the first place. My assumption is that the contamination is biological, which would be fixed by the long boil required in brewing. Even with resistance to the local microflora, water was probably more likely to cause disease than a boiled derivative like beer. > I guess people just really like the idea of medieval people being shitfaced all the time. I've heard that the beer made then, maybe especially for consumption by peasants, had a low ABV by today's standards. High alcohol beer is a waste of grain if the goal is a slightly-more-antiseptic-than-water beverage.

cardanome 3y ago
> I've heard that the beer made then, maybe especially for consumption by peasants, had a low ABV by today's standards. High alcohol beer is a waste of grain if the goal is a slightly-more-antiseptic-than-water beverage. You might want to reread what I wrote, yes it was only like 2 percent. The problem is, how anti-septic is 2% beer? It is not. It doesn't really help in any meaningful way. If you want stable beer that you can transport over longer distances you want higher alcohol concentration but then again higher alcohol concentration isn't exactly great for keeping people hydrated.
- triceratops 3y ago
  > The problem is, how anti-septic is 2% beer? It feels like you're deliberately not reading or addressing all the answers telling you that boiling water to make beer is what made it safe.
  - qwytw 3y ago
    Well if alcohol itself is irrelevant why did they not simply boil the water before drinking it without making a beer from it? I think the fact that people just like to drink beer is a much better explanation of why did they drink so much of it. The "safer to drink" part was secondary at best.
    - triceratops 3y ago
      Did they know boiling water made it safe to drink? Or did they only notice that drinking beer caused less diarrhea than drinking water? I'm not denying that the tastiness of beer was a factor.
      - qwytw 3y ago
        Hypocrates specifically recommended doctors to boil and filter water before giving to patients to drink. Ancient Egytpians, Indians and Romans understood that boiling makes water safer to drink as well (Galen even suggested using boiling water to sterilize surgical instruments). IMHO it makes perfect sense in the context of the miasma theory (if people thought that "bad smells" were the main vector spreading diseases and illnesses and boiling water removes bad smells, improves taste etc. then it also must have made it safer to drink).

cardanome 3y ago

> I've heard that the beer made then, maybe especially for consumption by peasants, had a low ABV by today's standards. High alcohol beer is a waste of grain if the goal is a slightly-more-antiseptic-than-water beverage. You might want to reread what I wrote, yes it was only like 2 percent. The problem is, how anti-septic is 2% beer? It is not. It doesn't really help in any meaningful way. If you want stable beer that you can transport over longer distances you want higher alcohol concentration but then again higher alcohol concentration isn't exactly great for keeping people hydrated.

triceratops 3y ago
> The problem is, how anti-septic is 2% beer? It feels like you're deliberately not reading or addressing all the answers telling you that boiling water to make beer is what made it safe.
- qwytw 3y ago
  Well if alcohol itself is irrelevant why did they not simply boil the water before drinking it without making a beer from it? I think the fact that people just like to drink beer is a much better explanation of why did they drink so much of it. The "safer to drink" part was secondary at best.
  - triceratops 3y ago
    Did they know boiling water made it safe to drink? Or did they only notice that drinking beer caused less diarrhea than drinking water? I'm not denying that the tastiness of beer was a factor.
    - qwytw 3y ago
      Hypocrates specifically recommended doctors to boil and filter water before giving to patients to drink. Ancient Egytpians, Indians and Romans understood that boiling makes water safer to drink as well (Galen even suggested using boiling water to sterilize surgical instruments). IMHO it makes perfect sense in the context of the miasma theory (if people thought that "bad smells" were the main vector spreading diseases and illnesses and boiling water removes bad smells, improves taste etc. then it also must have made it safer to drink).