Though its being like cannabis would explain why hobbits liked to eat six meals a day.
For my own purposes I'm thinking of some sort of psychoactive, pseudo spiritual drug, the kind of thing someone would use to feel like they're "leaving their body," sort of things like that.
The table beer of earlier centuries was often very weak by modern standards, to the point where I would not trust the alcohol to disinfect it. More to the point, however, it was boiled for a significant period during brewing.
Because by modern standards, a lot of what was drunk was rather weak, and it's not like, 'from what manuscripts remain' are in anyways rare or incomplete.Folks have attempted to recreate medieval beer and ale from what manuscripts remain, and found the alcohol content ran a very surprising 10 to 12 percent -- so if the resurrected recipes approach reality, it's more like "Why wasn't everyone drunk all the time?"
An interesting thing I learned in Japan - as a method of meditation, some buddhist monks would brew green tea so concentrated that it was more akin to paste, interpreting the ensuing caffiene OD high as a spirtul awakening.There's more than one real psychoactive drug like this. I've been to a couple of Yoruba-derived divination sessions that used small seeds. I was given three to chew, and I felt like I was flying.
The Iyanifa (priests) were each given 9. I kept wondering how they could even function.
Because by modern standards, a lot of what was drunk was rather weak, and it's not like, 'from what manuscripts remain' are in anyways rare or incomplete.
Being drunk all the time is a terrible way to get through the day when you need to be functional, so people wouldn't be drinking the strongest beverage all the time.
You seem to be making the mistake of thinking that there was somehow just one 'ye olde recipe,' instead of, well, everyone who knew how to ferment had their own recipe for doing it.
But it was interesting that the alcohol level of the modern attempts I've read about was the exact opposite of common modern wisdom.
Is it possible it was diluted?