The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
ianvisits.co.uk
The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
1–10 of 98 posts
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#2I'm not entirely sure I buy this argument. There are vast swathes of the world today where drinking tap water will likely make you sick, and in all these countries it is standard procedure to boil tap water before drinking it. In fact, in eg China & Indonesia, cold water (even if clean) is believed to be bad for you and drinking still warm boiled water or weak tea instead is very common. Was medieval England really an exception?
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#3I feel like some of these debunkings need debunking!
I don't think anyone is truly arguing that medieval people never drank water. But they did drink beer in quantities that would be untenable today.
The author is also muddling points - medieval people didn't have to understand microbiology to know that beer was safer to drink.
And it was! Not only would the brewer have access to better water, it would be boiled as part of the process. (And aromatics like hops acted as mild antiseptics - the beer would be safe to drink for as long as it tasted well).
To review:
- It was tasty
- It was convenient
- People you knew who drink it had the trots less often
- It was cheap enough
- It made you feel good during long days of arduous labor
- There was no social stigma so long as you don't get drunk
And it makes plenty of reason that brewers would be incentivised to keep ABV low so people could drink it all day if they could.
Even going into the US prohibition, I think people would be astonished by how much the typical worker drank (usually cider in the US). With workplaces themselves providing it by the truckload.
Yes, people drank water. But (especially in urban settings) they drank A LOT of low abv drinks.
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#4> Again, this was not a disease control issue, as there was no notion of separating wastewater from spring water for health reasons — it was simply a matter of taste.
The idea that "there was no notion of separating wastewater from spring water for health reasons" is complete bullshit. The dirtier the water, the more need to boil the water. Boiling the water would not have significantly improved the taste. Some streams were known to be unhealthy despite not appearing dirty and locals knew to boil this too. Springs and deep wells were so highly valued in part because these were known to be safe to drink without any processing. European records are full of people being prosecuted or just directly murdered for messing with spring or fountain water. The idea people would not connect the taste of the water (which was quite well observed) with health is not born out by records of the time. Laws on the books dictated where one might bathe, wash clothing, rinse unhealthy flesh, and especially where one might piss or shit, specifically concerned with causing widespread disease. In siena in 1262 a woman was flayed alive after she was accused of poisoning fountain water—not dirtying it, but specifically destroying its safety.
The reason people drank beer is the same as today: it's tasty, it makes you feel good, you get some calories, and water is "boring" unless you're really thirsty. Plus it was "packaged" and ready to drink in town
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#5I feel like some of these debunkings need debunking! I don't think anyone is truly arguing that medieval people never drank water. But they did drink beer in quantities that would be untenable today. The author is also muddling points - medieval people didn't have to understand microbiology to know that beer was safer to drink. And it was! Not only would the brewer have access to better water, it would be boiled as p…
[dead]
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#6I'm not entirely sure I buy this argument. There are vast swathes of the world today where drinking tap water will likely make you sick, and in all these countries it is standard procedure to boil tap water before drinking it. In fact, in eg China & Indonesia, cold water (even if clean) is believed to be bad for you and drinking still warm boiled water or weak tea instead is very common. Was medieval England really a…
And in all of those places you'd usually noted how bad is the taste of water, so many people knew it's unsafe not just from tradition, but also from the bad taste. The difference between now and medieval England is that we know taste is not everything, that even "sweet water" can be dangerous unboiled.
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#7I feel like some of these debunkings need debunking! I don't think anyone is truly arguing that medieval people never drank water. But they did drink beer in quantities that would be untenable today. The author is also muddling points - medieval people didn't have to understand microbiology to know that beer was safer to drink. And it was! Not only would the brewer have access to better water, it would be boiled as p…
You're just shoehorning in the assumption that people had diarrhea a lot, because that's the trope about medieval Europe. But if everybody lives in a well-established traditional way (and there's no current war or plague in the area) then they will also know by tradition the springs, streams and wells that yield clean water.
In Georgian times, around 1800, coal-based industry gets under way, there's a population explosion, and many cities have properly horrific slums, latrine courtyards ankle deep, families living with pigs in wet cellars, graveyards overflowing ex-human slurry into the street. This is also when we invent bottled water, and if you can't get that, beer is a good option for safety reasons.
But in calmer medieval times, avoiding the local water can't have been so crucial, because the locals probably knew where to get the clean-ish stuff (however harmlessly brown or wriggling).
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#8I'm not entirely sure I buy this argument. There are vast swathes of the world today where drinking tap water will likely make you sick, and in all these countries it is standard procedure to boil tap water before drinking it. In fact, in eg China & Indonesia, cold water (even if clean) is believed to be bad for you and drinking still warm boiled water or weak tea instead is very common. Was medieval England really a…
You’re comparing England from ~800 years ago to modern day countries. That hardly seems fair.
There’s a lot of knowledge we take for granted that simply hadn’t been discovered yet in medieval times.
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#9"12 years in a monastery" (1897) by Joseph McCabe mentions the astronomical amount of beer drunk by monks, as a matter of routine (albiet in the late 19th century)
He was one, before he went over the wall and became a proto socialist free thinker philosopher.
Re: The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)
#10I'm not entirely sure I buy this argument. There are vast swathes of the world today where drinking tap water will likely make you sick, and in all these countries it is standard procedure to boil tap water before drinking it. In fact, in eg China & Indonesia, cold water (even if clean) is believed to be bad for you and drinking still warm boiled water or weak tea instead is very common. Was medieval England really a…
You’re comparing England from ~800 years ago to modern day countries. That hardly seems fair. There’s a lot of knowledge we take for granted that simply hadn’t been discovered yet in medieval times.
But humans have been cooking stuff for thousands and thousands of years to improve nutritional value and kill off bacteria. Why would water be an exception?