History of alcoholic drinks but would compound the situation by creating additional problems wherever it was implemented. Alcoholic beverages played an important role in the Thirteen Colonies from their early days. For example, the "Mayflower" shipped more beer than water when it departed for the New World in 1620. While this may seem strange viewed from the modern context, note that drinking wine and beer at that time was safer than drinking water - which was usually taken from sources also used to dispose of sewage and garbage. Experience showed that it was safer to drink alcohol than the typically polluted water in Europe.
Barley wine very distinctive, with an earthy hoppiness, a wineyness, lots of fruit and toffee flavours." He also noted that its original gravity is 1.062. Martyn Cornell was quoted as saying "no historically meaningful difference exists between barley wines and old ales". He later clarified, "I don’t believe there is actually any such meaningful style as 'barley wine'". Barley wines are sometimes labelled with a production date, as they are intended to be aged, sometimes extensively. Many jurisdictions have different taxing schemes for potables based upon alcohol content. Since barley wine has a high alcohol content, it is, in some jurisdictions, taxed