Just finished a book on pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries and how they mainly ate bread and drank beer aboard ship.
Beer brewed in monasteries in the Middle Ages was associated with health and the hospitals which started at those same monasteries.
Since the water in densely populated Europe was always of doubtful potability: “The nobility drank wine, the peasants drank beer....and the dead drank water.” (all ages, with every meal, I might add).