America and Alcohol a Long History
Created | Updated Sep 6, 2009
Based upon the total of the actual alcohol by percentage the highest annual consumption of alcohol per person was the highest in 1822. Seems rather unlikely since the sheer volume that is drunk today seems larger, but the problem lies in the type of drinks today versus back then. Surprisingly, in those early years of America it was hard Cider almost 50% alcohol by volume. Spirits were just too expensive and required hard currency and America might have used currency but it was anything but hard. As an agrarian country, Apples were common as weeds and because there was so much of them they were turned into cider primarily to save them in a usable form and to prevent letting them rot on the trees.
Granted of course there were a few wealthy people who chose to pay the prices of the imported spirits, and our beer industry had yet to begin at that time and beer was just not generally available.
Granted of course there were a few wealthy people who chose to pay the prices of the imported spirits, and our beer industry had yet to begin at that time and beer was just not generally available.
