Alcoholism in Chapter 1. The narrator of "Bill's Story" the narrator recalls seeing the tombstone of the Thomas Thetcher the Hampshire Grenadier and taking it as a warning against drinking strong liquor to excess. Adam Smith uses small beer in a few examples in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. These include a comparison of the value of small beer and the value of bread and a longer description of why cheap alcohol does not result in greater drunkenness.https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38194/38194-h/38194-h.htm History Thomas Thetcher's tombstone at Winchester Cathedral features a poem that blames his death on drinking cold small beer. Benjamin Franklin attested in his autobiography that it was sometimes had with breakfast. George Washington had a recipe for it involving bran and molasses. William Cobbett in his work "A History of the Protestant Reformation" refers to a 12th-century Catholic place of hospitality which fed 100 men a day – "Each had a loaf of bread, three quarts of small beer, and 'two messes,' for his dinner; and they were allowed to carry home that which they did not consume upon the spot." (Pg. 90, TAN Books, 1988) See also Amazake Gamju Jiuniang Kumis Low-alcohol beer Podpiwek Svagdricka Kvass Notes References Types of beer