Incredibly, non-alcoholic beverages are a recent invention, in a way. In ancient times, fruit drinks fermented/spoiled spontaneously, and one would dare drink from much of the available water supplies. Thus, people would ferment their beverages under controlled circumstances, and use the alcoholic drinks to sanitize the water. Hence, the bible advises, “Drink no longer (pure) water, but use a little wine (in it) for thy stomach’s sake, and for thy infirmities.” (1 Tim 5:23); Non-alcoholic beverages meant primarily milk and, when sanitation conditions improved, water.
Only in 1875 did Thomas Bramwell Welch, son of a prominent prohibitionist minister, invent a process for pasteurizing grape juice to inhibit it from turning into wine. Thus was created the notion of a “soft drink,” containing no alcohol, in contrast to a “hard drink,” containing extra alcohol.
Finally.
I thought no one was going to get it straight on both non alcoholic ‘grape’ juice and water sanitizing.
It’s also the same reason the Western expansion in this country in many places followed Johnny Appleseed’s orchards, the apples were used mostly for cider, and therefore safe water.