Universities

History
Monasteries were the centers of learning and culture for several hundred years of European history. After the collapse of the Roman empire, knowledge was stored away, but also actively developed amongst the brotherhood of monks. A perhaps unique feature of these monks is that they would make an alcoholic beverage with a low alcohol content in order to help nourish them during fasts and long winters. This combination of learning and alcohol consumption has persisted in the modern descendant of the learning monastery - the secular university. European college students can be found imbibing potent alcoholic beverages on their breaks from studying, and they are rarely found to be fasting for reasons beyond calorie control. The secular university retains some of the trappings of monastic life, including that blessed sentiment of the sacrality of knowledge. At the secular university students often treat knowledge as an end unto itself, though this evaporates quickly after graduation.