Yeah well, if you only can choose between sewer water and beer, you are ultimately screwed either way. Beer is not a replacement for water
It
was for the pilgrims sailing to North America on the
Mayflower. Men, women, and children all drank beer:
Beer was a dietary mainstay in those days. Chances are the beverage in question was "ship's beer," a not-very-alcoholic concoction that, along with the even weaker "small beer," was drunk in formidable quantities during the colonial era (upwards of a quart per day seems to have been a typical ration). Undoubtedly an advantage was that, unlike more perishable foodstuffs, ship's beer would keep during long voyages and, having been boiled, was likely purer than ordinary water.http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051125.html
