Small beer was not a drink for intoxication. Instead, the light on alcohol drink was a safe alternative to water and frequently consumed with meals. Realbeer.com gives us this explanation: “The first runnings from a brewer’s mash would go to a stronger beer, the second for ordinary beer. A small beer, taken from a third running, was probably about 2.5% alcohol by volume. Belgian monasteries, in particular, produced large quantities of small beer in the Middle Ages.”
