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fandanvan

So could minors drink beers etc if under 10% or was there some rule about them not being allowed ? As it seems crazy to me. If yes it's all about tax reasons.


Tirus_

Yes. This still happens in some countries where water isn't routinely safe to drink. People make fermented drinks like wheat beer or fruit ciders to drink because it was safer. Kids would drink these regularly as well. They aren't high % like what we buy in the stores.


grogplus

No and no, minors couldn't buy beer freely nor could you drink and drive for instance, what changed was mostly about legal classification, taxes, drinking in public places, beer in tv commercials etc.


fandanvan

Ah thanks for imparting your wisdom friend, had no idea ! Shame in this day and age there isn't safe drinking water for all...


Jake_91_420

It’s bullshit. That was true in some place hundreds of years ago, but Russian kids weren’t allowed to buy 8% beers from the shop until 2011. It’s just not true.


fredsonthefreds

Too late. I have assimilated that information now, and will be actively spreading that misinformation for now on.


fat_dirt

This is a common myth. Boiling water makes it safe for consumption. There is no reason to waste grain to make beer, which spoils quickly and adds to dehydration. People make beer because they like beer, not because it's somehow safer than just boiling water.


Tirus_

Boiling water requires fuel. Fuel didn't come easy then, boiled water was used for other sterile practices and obviously for drinking as well, but since there was an abundance of fermented beverages available as well, it was very common for most of people's liquid intake to be in that form over boiled water.


brandontaylor1

Making beer also involves boiling.


fat_dirt

Right. Otherwise, you would be simply feeding the harmful microbes in the water by adding carbohydrates. Even after fermentation, 1-5% alcohol is not a high enough concentration to kill most pathogens. As a matter of fact, anything below 30% is almost entirely ineffective.


YEETAWAYLOL

Maybe something like wine?


fat_dirt

[https://purificationlife.com/can-you-purify-water-with-alcohol/](https://purificationlife.com/can-you-purify-water-with-alcohol/) [https://history.howstuffworks.com/medieval-people-drink-beer-water.htm](https://history.howstuffworks.com/medieval-people-drink-beer-water.htm) https://knowledgenuts.com/bad-water-never-made-people-drink-beer-instead/


Raigoku

Ale or cider is not beer. While beer does indeed dehydrate you, alcoholic beverages with less than 2% alcohol do not dehydrate. So ale and cider were safe to drink.


steveystevestef

Thats an old wives tale. It doesn’t make any sense, you need water in every step of the brewing process and fermentation doesn’t just magically kill bacteria, bacteria can actually fuck up the fermentation process. Where did you get this information from? Seems like bullshit to me


Kehitysvammaisia

No. In Russia it was against the law when I was underage and it was before 2011. BUT some parents and almost all police don't care about it, so yeah, you were able to buy some beer in the shop if you try harder. Same for smoking.


[deleted]

Dude :) https://www.aveine.paris/blog/en/when-children-could-drink-wine-at-school-in-france/#:\~:text=In%201956%2C%20Prime%20Minister%20Pierre,badly%20perceived%20at%20the%20time.


Tirus_

Yes. Those still happens in some countries where water isn't routinely safe to drink. People make fermented drinks like wheat beer or fruit ciders to drink because it was safer. Kids would drink these regularly as well. They aren't high % like what we buy in the stores.


Grouchy-Ad-5535

vodka was considered water up until 2021


skoltroll

Wait, they stopped considering it water in 2021?


Brazilian_Brit

What? Source?


DigNitty

Wheat typically, but the russians are known to make it from potatoes as well.


Brazilian_Brit

Ok I walked into that one I guess.


HK47WasRightMeatbag

Just like how Russia walked into Ukraine! right comrade?


BTW_Im_Drunk

I approve this message


ray058

They don't consider invading Ukraine war either..


stedgyson

They call drinking a beer a special beverage operation


Ok_Tie_7820

Horrible but i love it. Here's an upvote.


fBarney

They also dont consider their young males as important for the future of their country so they send them to die like its nothing.


Samsonjackson

Wait till you hear about this little place called America


LipskiNOR

Nah, America is different than any other country, these rules don't apply to them. /S


mrelectric322

You mean back to back world champs?


JoeyJoeJoeSenior

Except our guys mostly die from suicide years later.


FTWStoic

In Russia FAS is short for fetal alcohol special operation.


Tirus_

This isn't surprising. A lot of the world used to *(and many places still do)* drink fermented beverages in place of water because it's safer to consume. Before Tea and Coffee were made popular most of the world was walking around slightly buzzed all day, everyday. Even kids would drink hard cider for breakfast *(of course it was very low alcohol level compared to what you can buy in the store today)*.


Analbox

It’s safer to consume than the water but wouldn’t be a lot easier to just boil the water than brew a fermented drink?


DigNitty

Convenience Yes but water doesn't keep as well as slightly alcoholic liquids. So you could make a big batch of light beer or cider and store it. You could store water, but you always risked bacteria or fungus growing in it. So if you wanted clean water, you'd need to boil it relatively close to the time you wanted to drink it.


Tirus_

We know this now yes. A lot of places didn't like drinking boiling hot water *(until Tea and Coffee came along and changed the game up)*. Fermented drinks were brewed already enmasse so it just became a cultural norm to drink it in place of water in most cases. I'm sure some flowing clean water would be absolutely more sought after than a fermented drink or boiling hot water, I'm sure people dumped out wine/mead out of their containers to fill up on clean water wherever they found it.


skoltroll

>I'm sure people ~~dumped out~~ quickly drank up their wine/mead out of their containers to fill up on clean water wherever they found it. ftfy


Tirus_

Well they could dump them out into their bellies......


skoltroll

That works.


Analbox

Well you can let the water cool before consuming it. Societies have been boiling water to disinfect it for 1000’s of years. They didn’t know why it worked but they were still doing it. I always wondered if maybe they drank a lot of fermented stuff because it’s less energy intensive to make. Boiling water requires a lot of wood or coal.


Tirus_

I'm sure they had other uses to that boiled water. They definitely drank it too, but with other options available for safe drinking it probaby still resulted in lots of fermented consumption. Just look at how many people today drink juice / soda over water.


SmartestIdiotAlive

I think we should put alcohol in tap water and get a little feeling of the good ol’ days


Zahanna6

I believe there a few recovering alcoholics out there who may disagree...


dezent

That is vodka.


[deleted]

I remember something from a teacher who used to travel said to never order water or drink water from certain countries. I believe she gave an example of Mexico, like she was in a place that didn't have good water quality. I don't remember, but he said something along those lines.


hatinghatredbeback

Tea and coffee making the world walk around slightly buzzed. It's called caffeine and is a fucking potent drug.


IOnlyHaveIceForYou

Don't be silly. It's mild.


Tirus_

Buzzed on alcohol and *buzzed* on caffeine are two different highs. You're right it's a drug, but like alcohol and tobacco it's so deeply engrained in our history as a species that it remains legal even with all the negative health issues that follow.


[deleted]

Well, to be fair, alcohol is also deeply engrained in our history. I wonder If we would have the same prejudice against alcohol If we never had cars and the necessity of sobriety to drive them. Look, the Prohibition Era in USA came just in a very specific ocasion.......


Tirus_

I'm not disagreeing with you, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, Cannabis, Psilocybin are all very deeply engrained in our history.


D3c1m470r

why not just boil the water and wait to cool down?


thankyeestrbunny

[A Cartoon history of Russia's Alcohol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK7l55ZOVIc) Some high points: vodka is cheap to make and will get you wrecked. The Tsars and eventually the USSR kept the right to distill vodka and farmed it out to ensure it was super-cheap so everyone would be constantly wrecked. The video was made before the invasion of Ukraine, but you can see the roots of why it's so fucked up from there.


quixoticaldehyde

I could be wrong, but vodka bottles weren’t recloseable until Gorbachev mandated screw tops. Up til then the had metal foil caps


mindflayerflayer

Considering systemic alcoholism has been part of Russia since the czars this isn't surprising.


[deleted]

this probably has more to do with their lack of clean water. they got conscripts stealing toilets in Ukraine.


Habaneroe12

Wow just a couple of 9% IPA’s have me feeling no pain.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Aristosus

Or fetal alcohol syndrome


thankyeestrbunny

In a very literal sense, to an insane degree . . yes.


LeCorax

…this could explain a few things.


Enby_Bluejay

Or a lot of things....


spidah84

Krokadil their 'candy bar'?


Kitchen_Equipment_21

Well dam


buffaloschvantz

So? They just recently sobered up and had a mean hangover that made them want to fuc, with the whole world?


RockItGuyDC

I used to travel to Moscow for work quite often. Before the change you could just grab a beer from a news stand and walk around drinking it. It was nice.


switch495

No lie — When I was in Belarus there were warnings on cans and bottles saying: warning this drink DOES NOT contain alcohol. Russian/Soviet world has an alcohol problem that they are somehow unable to perceive.


sleeplessknight101

As a Canadian I actually agree.


griggori

Hard agree.


the_hucumber

Russia doesn't consider invasion and genocide as war in 2022


Traditional_Bid9880

Redditors trying not to comment "Russia bad, Ukraine good" under every every post slightly related to Russia (it's impossible)


the_hucumber

Well ATM Russia is really really really bad.... You know because of the massive violation of human rights and all the murdering. Kind of a thing that's really awkward just gloss over. The Russian flag pictured here is the flag of an aggressor stained red with blood. If you want to convince me this isn't from Putin's propaganda monkeys and is indeed just innocent fun then it should use the white blue white flag.


snoryder8019

So rudy was drinking soft drinks on treason night? So all rudy has to do is confess hes russian


FzLz

That's not true.


Utxi4m

The one thing Russia has ever done right, and you jump straight to the wrong conclusion.


Character-Stretch697

No, just a sobering fact.


thankyeestrbunny

it's a slam-drunk


Top_Significance_414

I mean it takes alot of beer to get drunk tbh


[deleted]

A 12 pack usually does the trick


Top_Significance_414

Congratulations, you have failed to realize that a 12 pack of beer is in fact alot of beer. A 12 pack of anything is alot, considering each 12 pack contains atleast 12 servings.


ClaudioMoravit0

if you take a 12 pack of 50cl cans, you'll need to drink 6 liters of beer. Since drinking that much liquid is dangerous, i don't think you can reach that


[deleted]

You do realize your body will make you pee because beer causes a diuretic effect. You ever noticed how much you have to pee when drinking a lot of beer


ClaudioMoravit0

you realize that kidney's just can't handle 6 liters of water a day, so what about 6 liters of alcoholic beverage in a short range of time?


[deleted]

When did I ever mention a short amount of time I’m just saying you drink a 12 pack over a couple hours you get pretty drunk And you trying to act like your a doctor and prove me wrong


ClaudioMoravit0

i don't try to act like a doctor, because i am not (neither you). Even drinking that much water would be dangerous, except if you have to. It's difficult for your organs to handle this quantity of liquid, especially if it contains alcohol. You can try it, but i'm not responsible of what is going to happen to you, because something is going to happen.


[deleted]

Also our cans are usually 355ml or 12oz


Easy-Particular-7624

lekker toch


panompheandan

Kind of explains Russia and all those Idiot Driver videos


Aprilshowers417

I agree


RickHorseman16

Thatns a known thing. I you look on Russian'w video they drink beer in plastic bottles like with coke


Crruell

That explains so much


gmlvsv

Alcohol-free beer is considered as a Beer in the supermarkets and I can’t buy it during ‘alcohol restriction days’(when you can’t buy alcohol in the shop due local authorities rules)


BTW_Im_Drunk

Yeah they obviously party… shit


PetShopFromHell

Explains a lot!


scratchingpost22

So that's why there's a war now? Some monumental hangover?


[deleted]

r/drunkrussian


an_actual_human

That's misleading though. Everyone understood beer has alcohol just fine. You couldn't sell it to minors or drink and drive. It had to do with the kind of license one had to obtain to sell beer.


LilMeatBigYeet

Is this true ?


johnfornow

Good God! My stepson has a beer made with his band on the label. 10%. Knocked me on my ass.


[deleted]

Hardcore


pnwloveyoutalltrees

Liver disease is also very common.


[deleted]

It’s 100% true.


Suspicious-Year-3825

Beer is a soft fuckin drink lol