Earlier quoted context omitted.
If alcohol was brand new, it likely would be a scheduled drug and very well controlled. It’s only allowed because it’s very old and well integrated to some societies.
Fermentation of grains and fruit is a millennia-old way of preserving food that would otherwise spoil, so it isn’t without merit. The problem today is that alcohol is available so easily and so cheaply in many countries. In Germany, (some) beer costs less than regular milk per liter and hard liquor is available very cheaply as well. I have seen people that destroyed themselves using alcohol, but most people can deal…
Plus since this is a counterfactual, we don't actually need alcohol for preservation anymore. We have refrigeration.
The bit about Germany and beer is merely observational bias. You can’t imagine those countries differently because that’s the way things are for your lifetime. I’m sure in an alternative universe there’s someone talking about German weed culture, or German poppy culture.
Either way, alcohol clearly isn’t going away, and trying to make it go away is foolish. The point is that we’ve normalized a very dangerous compound due to historical reasons, and it’s fascinating.