Is this appropriate to put in a young adult book?

0. If your book could be described as fantasy, the sort of people you're worried about will find plenty of other things to criticise beside widespread underage drinking.

1. Back in the 1700s, in a lot of places, water wasn't safe to drink on its own, so people drank beer or other alcoholic drinks instead. These were often weaker than modern beers, around 2% alcohol - just enough to kill the bacteria.

2. Partly because of (1) there wasn't the same puritanical attitude to alcohol that a lot of people have now - you could consume it as long as you stayed in control of your actions.

3. Throughout most of history, a 14-year-old would've been regarded as, if not legally an adult, capable of making their own decisions about most everyday things - such as how much beer they could safely consume before they ought to stop.

4. Someone who isn't aware of (1) to (3), or who still thinks it's unacceptable for characters to drink in spite of those points, is probably not in your target audience.

5. Parents, teachers and religious nutjobs aren't going to make a fuss about your book unless it becomes popular enough to appear in school libraries (or popular enough that kids ask for it to be stocked in school libraries). I'm sure you're familiar with the fuss over Harry Potter allegedly encouraging children to practice witchcraft. The magic in HP is nothing like the Christian stereotypes of witchcraft and dealing with demons. Now go look up the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, which heavily features demons in the Christian sense (and which is partly narrated by such a demon). In fact the entire human society in that series is based on magic that comes from demons. So why haven't the nutjobs called for it to be banned and held public burnings of the books? Because it's not popular enough for them to have heard of it.

Well that kinda depends on what the setting for the characters are. Wether it's placed in the past or present, what thier lifestyle is, etc. If it fits with the setting or situation you should be ok; but even if it kinda doesn't, don't be worried because teens between 14 & 19 watch on TV and read worse things than someone simply drinking beer.

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Yes, that's fine. I can't remember the last time I read a young adult book that didn't have some reference to smoking/drinking/sex etc.

Remember, your target audience is young adults - emphasis on the adults. It is not a story for kids. Young adults do drink and it would be silly to pretend they didn't.

If people boycotted every book that included things like drinking, there'd be a lot fewer books out there.

Write your book the way you want to, but I would put a "Notice" in front of the story, reminding readers that the story takes place in 1700, and culture at that time was much different than today.

I don;t think it would be bad because in the 1700's it was safer to drink beer and wine than it was water or milk the alcohol killed the germs

Im 15 and many of the young adult books I read have drugs alcohol sexual intercourse lots of violence cursing and what not. And those books are in my school Library. I think it should be okay. Good luck with your book. Id love to read it

No that sounds fine. I mean, it stricter schools and buildings it may be banned but considering the young adult books that have been published that is not a problem at all.