Apparently, brewers used to use ingredients other than hops to give it a floral taste. I suppose these flowers were easy to forage, or you’d splash out and buy hops from the market. You’d have no way of knowing what was in the concoction placed before you in the tankard other than trusting the brewster. It springs up images of wrinkly witches with pimples on their noses stirring a cauldron while wearing a pointy hat and cackling loudly. No wonder people got drunk and referred them to beers as potions that made them do odd things. Is it any wonder that people thought that these brewsters would fly off into the night on a broomstick and the mere drop of water would make them disappear? Or would this be holy water, which in today’s terms would be water that’s clean and purified (i.e from the tap? Is our tap water scientifically the same as holy water without the magic spell of a blessing?).
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