This article on alcohol consumption trends is really interesting.
My take away from it is that people used to be drunk all the time. According to some of the data cited in the article, people in Northern Europe used to drink about a liter of beer a day and about a liter of wine a day in Southern Europe. That is a ton of drinking.
Of course, water was basically poison, so it makes sense. Anyway, the article was great and well worth a read.