I expect it was low alcohol stuff like English and Munich beer.
Question the quality of the water? That's a good excuse :-)
There are stories of people getting so drunk at funerals they fell into
the open grave. That's scary in more ways than one. The folks in New
England had an advantage over the colonists farther south: they were
healthier because it actually froze in winter up where they were. The
incidence of malaria was lower than in places like Virginia. This book
is great, filled with all sorts of wonderful stuff. It's one of the few
(okay, not *few* by some people's standards) of history books I've
actually purchased.
