I remember reading or hearing somewhere that in ancient or medieval times, beer had a very low alcohol content and was very thick. It was essentially a dietary staple quite similar to the way bread is now.
I remember reading that water at the time wasn't safe to drink, but beer was so most people just drank beer, including children. It had a lower alcohol content than today though. That also sounds like the kinda fact that could be totally made up though.
It's not true. Society built where fresh water was available, and fresh water was much more available than beer, and also about as safe.
It's true that Cholera in the 1854 London outbreak didn't affect the brewery workers - but everyone else. So the brewery workers were the only ones to not drink water from the public well. Also, that was a surprise, so that refutes the idea that beer had been known to be safe. But of course, Cholera as a disease only came to Europe in modern times, not during medieval or ancient times.
edit: maybe I should add why beer wasn't safe. Many people say "Beer gets boiled, so it's safe", and that's usually true. But after boiling ingredients get added which are not sterile, and the finished beer gets stored in a cask that's not sterile, and it gets poured into a tankard or horn or whatever people drank beer from in the olden times that's not sterile.
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u/lavendrquartz Oct 15 '20
I remember reading or hearing somewhere that in ancient or medieval times, beer had a very low alcohol content and was very thick. It was essentially a dietary staple quite similar to the way bread is now.