People over-attribute the impact of culture on drinking habits. In reality genetics plays the largest factor in problematic drinking. Just look at the epidemic of alcoholism in American Indians, despite that culture having no prior traditions of drinking.

The thing is Northern Europeans are probably more genetically prone to alcoholism than other European populations. For example British Jews, even the non-religious subset, binge drink at much lower rates than the rest of Britain. Predictably the population has a much concentration of genes associated with resistance to alcoholism.

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/329933...