We see a lot of movies and tv shows depicting characters consuming and very much enjoying large quantities of alcohol such as wine and ale. Due to the large amounts consumed, I'm curious to know the strength at which these alcoholic beverages are made. Perhaps because they drink a lot, their tolerance is much higher?
It's very difficult to say how strong it was, as virtually all of the modern methods for even guessing at alcohol content didn't exist in medieval times or prior. Following their instructions as closely as possible for beer and wine tends to create products of similar strength to modern products.
It's important to note that even into the medieval period it was common to water down wine, stretching it out and reducing the alcohol content. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection (which you can search online) has examples of wine bowls with raised discs in the center; you would fill it with wine until the disc was submerged, then fill the rest with water. This practice dates back as far as Ancient Rome and Greece, who considered the drinking of undiluted wine to be a sign of crudeness and alcoholism.
The typical dilution in Roman and Greek times was 3:1 or 4:1 water to wine. I've done this before with red wine and the result is a drink that looks exactly like wine but tastes like water with a slight hint of wine on the aftertaste. This stretches the alcohol content of a modern 6 oz. pour into a pint of refreshing liquid.