Medieval People Drank Beer Because the Water Was Unsafe

Medieval people drank water all the time, and the documentary record shows it. They drank from wells, springs, rivers, and rainwater cisterns, they wrote about good and bad water sources, and medical texts of the period recommend water for health. Nobody at the time wrote that water was to be avoided as inherently deadly; that is a modern assumption read backwards onto them. They also drank ale and small beer, sure, because it had calories, kept reasonably well, and was pleasant, exactly the reasons people drink beer now. They simply had no germ theory and no concept that boiling during brewing happened to help. So the medieval world was not a continent of mild day-drinkers dodging the water supply. They drank water like everyone in history, and enjoyed a beer on top, like a lot of people still do.