I served in the British Merchant Navy for many years and some companies used to give tots of grog once a week for morale purposes. The grog consisted of very strong rum. Under normal circunstances you would not have drunk the stuff as it tasted more like raw aviation spirit. To protect us we were made to drink it with a measure of water and to drink it at the grog table so that we did not save it up for a binge later. It certainly had a kick and did lift your spirits for the rest of the evening. So we did look forward to the "rot-gut".
Ray Ferrie retired seafarer