[folknor]

The way you phrased the myth isn't true for the entire population of England, for example. But it is somewhat true - depending on how one interprets what you wrote, and depending on geographical location and time period.

For example, it is true that everyone drank beer almost every day regardless of whether or not they had access to clean water - but not beer as we think of it today; it was probably less than 3% ABV, and had lots of varied additives that are now extremely rare in commercial beers (counting all breweries small and large.)

In places where clean water was easily available, beer was consumed for its calories (people worked all day) as well as quenching your thirst, and for its taste - but also because it wasn't cold. Your body spends lots of energy warming up cold water. Safe drinking water was often cold, because it came from underground wells or moving sources like what we'd call aqueducts.

Even infants were fed beer. You can look up the poem "Beer" by Charles Calverley, which contains the famous line "Guinness, Allsop, Bass! Names that should be on every infants tongue." He lived between 1800-1900.