According to Rorabaugh's estimations for the year 1790, the annual consumption of alcohol per capita among people above 15 in was roughly 34 gallons of beer and cider, one gallon of wine and 5 gallons of spirits. This is already after the USA has been formed, but we can with some degree of probability extrapolate it to the earlier times, keeping in mind that these approximations are rather loose as they are based on an incomplete set of data, often secondary, such as the analysis of an excise tax income. Now, assuming that the common beer and cider contained about 2% alcohol, wine contained 10% and hard liquors, were on average 70-proof (35% alcohol), we arrive at the amount of 2.52 gallon of pure ethanol or 11.35 litre. How does it compare to a modern consumption? Quite well, actually. This is as much as is consumed in Bulgaria, Denmark or Spain (circa 11.5 l) and less than the annual consumption in Finland (12.3 l), Portugal (12.9 l), Lithuania (15.5 l), Moldova (16.8 l) or Belarus (17.6 l). On the side note, the breakdown of drink type (85% beer and cider/2.5% wine, 12.5% spirits) roughly matches that of modern Indonesia and Myanmar. For comparison, in 2019 USA sported the consumption of 9.2 l (50% beer/17% wine/33% liquors) while in UK it was 11.6 l (44% beer and cider/34% wine/22% liquors). It should be noted however, that this consumption was mainly limited to the settlements, as people in the actual frontier drank significantly less due to problems with supplies and generally preferred strong liquors that were easier to transport and did not spoil.

Addressing a common issue mentioned in the discussion about the alcohol consumption, i.e. the alleged sanitizing qualities of alcohol, it needs to be stressed that alcohol, especially in the low concentration found even in modern beer is far too weak to properly sanitize the beverage. Many bacteria of geni Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces and Pediococcus thrive well in such environment and thus are often used in production of sour beer but are also a testament to the fact that microbes, including harmful ones can live in beer, causing a deterioration of the beverage and possible gastrointestinal poisoning. There are historical records of complaints raised about quality of beer that have caused some distress in the consumers, although it is hard to discern how valid they were. Nevertheless, beer and cider can be easily spoiled by microorganisms so its alcohol content cannot be considered a way to protect the consumer against pathogens. This is why people generally drank water and were treating beer simply as something better in the same way that most modern people do not drink plain water if they have anything else available.

Jamestown might have been a specific case, because unlike most European settlements where fresh water was easy to obtain, the colony was located near the shoreline, amidst the swamps that largely contained saltwater thus rendering most local surface water sources unfit for use. Potable water shortages were a known and persisting problem in this particular settlement. It is possible that the problem with the water supply led to the demand of competent brewers and significant malt imports from England and continental Europe.

It should be noted that even prolonged consumption of small and moderate amounts of alcohol is generally not dangerous, as evidenced by the hepatic and nephritic conditions in modern world where the complications of alcohol consumption are well known. Given that the 18th-century estimations suggest similar consumption rate to the modern one, one can argue that various hepatic conditions, such as cirrhosis or liver cancer could have easily be caused primarily by various pathogens responsible for e.g. viral hepatitis or by common molds occurring on grain that could have been a non-negligible source of aflatoxins. Of course, moldy grain was not generally consumed, but in a time of food scarcity, aesthetic considerations were usually of no issue and there is little evidence that people living before 20th century were aware of link between consumption of moldy grain and a long-term liver damage. This might suggest that the existing liver conditions could have been caused by various conditions other than alcohol consumption.

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Barr, A. Drink: A Social History of America. Carroll & Graff, 1999.

Rorabaugh, W.J., Estimated U.S. Alcoholic Beverage Consumption, 1790-1860, in: Journal of Studies on Alcohol 37:1975, pp. 357-363.

Rorabaugh, W.J., The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, Oxford University Press, New York 1979.