FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - "Early American Beverages"

Dave Smith[_1_]

On 2018-04-20 9:16 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On 4/19/2018 9:33 PM, wrote:
>> On Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 11:03:56 PM UTC-4,
>> wrote:
>>> On Wed, 18 Apr 2018 17:23:40 -0700 (PDT), lenona wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> "Early American Beverages were overwhelmingly alcoholic
>>>
>>> Because they DIDN'T have easy access to clean water.
>>
>> I know, but one thing puzzles me. Any detailed account of the
>> Mayflower voyage says that even the children had to drink beer after a
>> while. Wouldn't everyone have been close to dying of thirst as a
>> result, by the time they landed? (Alcohol is very diuretic, for those
>> who don't know.)
>>
>>
>> Lenona.
>>
>
> I imagine the beer was fairly low alcohol though.Â* More important it is
> mostly water and will not infect you like contaminated water.

According to the book Mayflower the ship was headed to New Amsterdam
where the Dutch were allowing them to establish a colony. They landed in
Massachusetts because they had run out of beer.