Before 1516, European beer was made with a blend of wild herbs called gruit. Yarrow, bog myrtle, mugwort, wild rosemary, juniper. Medieval sources describe it as energizing and aphrodisiac. Some even reference "gruit sickness" from overconsumption.

Then the Reinheitsgebot happened and suddenly beer could only contain hops, barley, and water.

Here's what they don't mention in the history books:

 The Catholic Church held a monopoly on gruit production through something called "gruitrecht." 

Massive revenue stream. Making hops mandatory broke their monopoly and transferred that revenue to the state and to hop farming guilds.

 Hops are also a sedative. They're literally used in sleep medicine. 

The switch from stimulating gruit herbs to sedating hops meant the peasant class went from drinking something that woke them up to something that kept them calm.

 And here's the kicker. Hops contain 8-prenylnaringenin, one of the most potent phytoestrogens known. 

This was confirmed in a 1999 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Female hop farmers historically experienced menstrual disruptions from just handling the plants.

Centuries of herbal brewing knowledge, gone. Replaced with a single crop that's easy to tax, easy to control, and keeps the population docile.