Yes, the pilgrims preferred beer over water because the water kept killing them. Drinking tea or beer was a matter of safety, not mere preference or addiction. We now know that the combination of boiling, pH, and alcohol helped keep beer safer than drinking water of the time, but they were unaware of that and just knew that beer seemed safer.

Trying to draw a parallel between modern drinking habits and the pilgrims is just silly, because we’re drinking different things in different amounts for very different reasons.