LogFAQs > #949653917

I mean, its popularity throughout most of history has less to do with making high-quality products and more to do with how easy it was to cultivate grain and use it to produce sterile beverages (or at least beverages that were more safe to drink than water). Beer brewing in the "make interesting products that people will enjoy drinking" sense is a relatively recent concept. Heck, beer only really became popular in the US after prohibition ended. Prior to prohibition, cider was most Americans' drink of choice (Johnny Appleseed planted apple trees on the frontier not to provide people with apples to eat, but to give them apples to make cider with so they could have something safe to drink), but after prohibition forced most of the cider apple orchards to close (cider apples generally differing from eating apples), it was easier to ramp up grain production to brew beer than to resume cider production on the same scale, allowing beer to take over that niche.