These are responses to past questions here, sorry if they seem a little out of context but the responses might be helpful. The second response is to question about recreating ancient brews.

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While it is true that wine (and some beer and liquor) was widely available, it is important to note that the term "wine" in Latin has a broad range of meaning.

Wine was often heavily diluted with water. The lowest sort of wine that consumed by slaves and the poor was called lora and was a sort of piquette. It was made from the pomace - skins, pulp, seeds, stems etc- of the already pressed grapes.

Another sort of wine was posca. Loads of spices, vinegar, seawater, and whatever else was at hand was added to overcome the bad taste of water and any health risks etc. It also was a solid source of vitamins and nourishment and was thus rationed amongst the troops.

So, it is true that wine was the staple drink of the Mediterranean (arguably still is), the drinks referenced are not as high in alcoholic content as our narrower definition of wine is today.

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There were no hops during Saint Patrick's time. The first we about hops replacing gruit is during the 9th century under Charlemagne.

The brews in Roman-Egypt would have been from barley. Maybe you could modify a barley-wine style of beer today. In Britain and the western areas closer to St. Patrick, they would have used rye.

I will quote a passage from Pliny's Natural Histories Bokk 22.88:

"Different beverages, too, are made from the cereals, zythum in Egypt, cælia and cerea in Spain, cervesia and numerous liquors in Gaul and other provinces. The yeast [spuma or foam, like a beer head] of all of these is used by women as a cosmetic for the face.—But as we are now speaking of beverages, it will be the best plan to pass on to the various uses of wine, and to make a beginning with the vine of our account of the medicinal properties of the trees."

Some things that may have been used in the gruit of those early Gallic or British brews may have been juniper berries, heather, anise (star anise in the grocery), and others. You could use cinnamon, but beer was blue-collar drink and cassia or cinnamon, would have been really expensive.

It would be cloudier and there would have been sediments. The alchohol content probably would have been under 5% but you do not have to water it down too much for "authenticity".