Comment by jfforko4
8 months ago
"Beer" had like 1% of alcohol content. Just enough to keep it without bacteria.
Drinking 2 month old stale untreated water... good luck with that.
> they liked drinking beer
Sailors were basically slaves. Nobody cared what they liked. But if crew dies from diarrhia, that is a big problem!
> "Beer" had like 1% of alcohol content. Just enough to keep it without bacteria.
You need closer to 40% alcohol.
> Nobody cared what they liked.
Not in the British Navy. Food was very important to morale and they got a lot of it with the best quality they could manage. Meat every day was luxury few people could afford.
Mutiny was a very real risk. That's why warships carried so many marines. Good food goes a long way to preventing this.
> Just enough to keep it without bacteria.
Bacteria (and certainly viruses) can survive 80 proof liquor. 1% alcohol is going to have very little sterilization effect.
It's not the alcohol that's supposed to kill bacteria, it's the long boil.
First of all, many types of beer were historically not boiled. Quite a few still aren't. The mash, however, pasteurizes the beer.
That, however, doesn't last forever. In the conditions of the 18th century or whatever, microorganisms will get into the beer after mashing/boiling, so the heat treatment only helps for a while. The fermentation really does protect the beer afterwards, but it's a combination of low pH, alcohol, low oxygen, little nutrients, CO2, etc. Hops also help against gram-positive bacteria.
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The boil does kill the bacteria, but it's not preserved after the boil. At best it's as sterile as water; at worse it spoils faster due to the abundance of nutrients.
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Yes and ancient Greeks and Romans already knew that boiling water somehow makes it safer to drink.
Yet people continued wasting resources on time on making beer and similar drinks due to whatever reasons..
> Beer" had like 1% of alcohol content.
How is that enough? A highly nutritious liquid made from grain is a quite perfect environment for all kind of bacteria and other stuff to grow and spread. Relatively clean water? Not so much.
start with pasturization, then add hops. Beer will go bad but not fast-
Right.. yet most beer in the middle ages was not hopped. In some areas like Britain it was virtually unknown and throughout most of Europe it didn’t become popular until the 1500s or so.
Sure, IPA can last for a very long time (that was kind of the point) most people didn’t drink that type of beer on a daily basis.
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Some sailors were basically slaves, but like most slaves, they required a minimum to prevent revolt, especially at sea where they vastly outnumbered commanding officers and there was no reinforcement.
> "Beer" had like 1% of alcohol content.
Beer has had a huge range of alcohol strengths, from Mesopotamia until today, so that statement is nonsensical.
> Just enough to keep it without bacteria.
1% is not enough to keep bacteria from growing in a beer. In general, more alcohol means it will keep longer, but to be truly safe you need to go quite high. This is a pretty complex issue, though.