You walk into the tavern...

That line has begun many an old AD&D adventure, cliche as it may be. Of course, to a bunch of kids who know very little about booze at all, the equipment list in the old Player's Handbook was of little help. For instance, what the heck is small beer? Should I order a big beer instead?

To help sort out the confusion, here is a run down of all the provisions on the equipment list:

Meal, basic: Standard fare that counts for one of an individual's 3 daily squares. Nothing fancy. Better food costs more.

Rations, Standard: One week's worth of nourishing food. Keeping it for more than a week risks spoilage.

Rations, Iron: One week's worth of preserved food, such as dried meat, hard cheese, dried fruit, hard tack, etc. Will resist spoilage for a month or more.

Ale: Fermented grain beverage, around 5% alcohol by volume.

Small Beer: A nearly non-alcoholic beer, but the brewing process and the amount of alcohol it does have makes it much safer to drink than the local water supply. Suitable for consumption by children. Often provided by foremen at labor and construction sites to keep the workers hydrated. Really hard (but not impossible!) to get drunk on.

Mead: Fermented honey beverage, often infused with herbs or spices. Alcohol content varies, but averages around 10-18%.

Wine: Fermented beverage made from fruit juice, most often grapes. Alcohol content varies, but averages in the 10-14% range. Watered wine isn't just a cost-saving measure for barkeeps, but serves the same purpose as small beer for making the local water safe to drink. Good wine is expensive, very good wine extremely so.

Note that in many ancient cultures, distinctions blur between wine, beer and mead. The Beaker people of Scotland, for example, made a concoction of all three, with various herbs and spices added as they were available.

There are some problems with how various races in AD&D are drawn to certain drinks over others. For example: Dwarves like their beer. But beer is made from grain (mostly), and Dwarves live mostly underground. So there must be lots of Dwarven farmers that supply the necessary grain for drinking, right? Elves like wine, but they live in forests. Wine grapes grow best in places like Eastern Washington, which isn't what one would consider to be elf-like territory. Also, wine grapes are grown in meticulously manicured vineyards that require the carving up of acres of land and the elimination of pest animals. That doesn't sound like elvish behavior.


Then there is the issue of hard alcohol. It's mentioned in the Player's Handbook, but any society with the alchemical know-how to make magical potions could easily make distilled spirits. Again, Dwarves are often painted as hard-core drinkers, but you have to start out with something simple, like a corn mash, before you can get anything stronger. 


With all this in mind, I shudder to think what the Drow elves might drink.


My take on this is to just assume that trade between countries and races solves all conundrums. Dwarves are willing to trade ores and metals for grain, and elves are willing to trade fine crafts and such for good grapes. All this means that there are some seriously rich Halfling communities in the world, working hard to keep everyone in their cups. Everyone likes Halflings, and this is the main reason why. They also grow the best pipeweed, too...


-Michael Keith