Raleigh 400 ale was served to guests at Fairlynch Museum's 2018 exhibition in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, where the celebrated 'Boyhood of Raleigh' by Millais was painted in 1870 Image credit: Lizzie Mee
Back
in 2018 I helped to launch a drink in honour of Sir Walter Raleigh, marking the
400th anniversary of the Great Devonian’s death.
Celebrating Sir Walter’s 400th with an ale and at the pub named after
him in East Budleigh: (l-r) Budleigh blogger Michael Downes, Sally Miller and
Jonathon Crump, owner of Black Tor Brewery Image credit: Nigel Jones
I’m
just wondering whether something similar might be served at a future banquet in
honour of Roger Conant, and to mark the 400th anniversary of his
arrival in America.
Now
don’t tell me that Puritans like Conant didn’t drink ale.
Back in 1970 Courage (Western) Breweries produced a Mayflower
Ale, brewed to mark the 350th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers
from Plymouth.
Image credit: https://drizly.com
No surprise then that to coincide with the 400th anniversary
of the arrival of the 1620 Pilgrims, an American version has been produced by
the Mayflower Brewing Company, based in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Beer
was the staple drink on board the Mayflower, reads their publicity. The
Pilgrims drank beer with nearly all of their meals and the ship’s crew had a
daily ration of a gallon. 'Mayflower Daily Ration is an unfiltered session IPA
that is crisp, dry and bursting with citrusy hop flavor and aroma.'
Image credit: www.bateman.co.uk
Back on this side of
the Atlantic, a Lincolnshire brewery launched Batemans Pilgrim Fathers, a 4.4% ABV, golden-coloured
cask beer with what they described as a big, hoppy flavour with fruity
undertones of blackcurrant and citrus from the Bramling Cross and Chinook hops
– chosen to represent the mixed heritage of the Pilgrim Fathers and for the
perfect balance they bring to this popular Lincolnshire beer.
Image credit: www.hallwoodhousebeerfest.com
Closer to home and Roger Conant’s birthplace, Dorset brewers Hall &
Woodhouse have produced Puritan 6, a 4.8% ABV American Pale Ale, of a light gold colour with a malty
backbone and a huge hit of American Piney Grapefruit Hops. The ale is named,
says the brewery, after the Puritan church in Dorchester, St Peter’s, where the
Rev John White supported fellow-sympathisers in religious matters by helping to
colonise America.
Portrait of
Rev. John White, from the National Portrait Gallery. Unknown artist woodcut,
late 17th century
Which brings us very neatly to Roger
Conant. For it was the Rev John White who arranged for him to cross the
Atlantic and supervise the fishing enterprise at Cape Ann, near present-day
Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Forget the notion of Puritans as
killjoys. It was encouraged by cartoonists who wished to discourage the
Prohibition Amendment of 1919 which outlawed the manufacture, sale,
or transportation of intoxicating liquors in the USA, writes Roger’s biographer Clifford K. Shipton. ‘Actually,
Roger Conant and his contemporaries consumed amazing quantities of beer,
quantities which stagger our imagination’.
So let’s get brewing in time to
raise many glasses of Conant ale during the 2023 festivities in celebration of
East Budleigh’s other hero.
