Going back further, I'd love to know the source of the claim that the Mayflower was diverted from the mouth of the Hudson to Plymouth Rock because the ship was running low on beer. It seems like the sort of thing that would be more widely known.
The framing is a bit dubious, at the very least... The statement about 'preferring beer to water' ignores cholera, and the general difficult of keeping water potable over months at sea. Fermentation was, believe it or not, a public health strategy for ship voyages.
Reminds me of the article "Were Early Modern People Perpetually Drunk? (2016)"