what the

heck is butterbeer? is that beer, as in alcohol? is the drinking age in the wizarding world 12 or 13 or something, since that is when hogwarts students are allowed to go into hogsmeade where they will undoubtedly wander into the three broomsticks and that buxom slut, madam rosmerta, will serve them butterbeer?
as a 10 year old i used to dismiss this as simply a name, like root beer, that had no important meaning (hello, sirius black was on the loose). who cared? but, as i was finding with a lot of things in harry potter, it was becoming harder to overlook as i read on. in the fourth book, it says that butterbeer is strong stuff for house elves, and winky is usually seen drunk off of it. so its like watered down wine? are wizarding people trying to get young witches and wizards into sensible drinking form? fat chance for people like harry, who has role models like hagrid, a beer bellied, feel-sorry-for-myself drinker, or professor slughorn, a cant-pass-up-an-opportunity drinker, and also has a beer belly (and also serves wine to harry and ron and gets ron so drunk he's poisoned).
in the sixth book, harry supposes he will "just have to wait to see what happened under the influence of butterbeer in slughorn's dimly lit room on the night of the party." he's thinking about ron and hermione getting drunk with a teacher and probably having drunk sex in an empty classroom. good thing they are both under age.
good thing dumbledore doesnt give a fuck, he's too busy wearing flamboyant robes and being a genius. and mcgonagall never says anything when those gryffindors crack open nice cold butterbeers after a tough quidditch game.
your wizarding world is an alcoholic one, and i want to be "part of your world."
-emily