December 2015 Ale-conner

Under William the Conquerors rule there were the first regulations on quality of beer in the area. Reason being is that William was concerned about just that, the quality was perhaps not what it should be. And so was appointed an ale-conner to inspect the breweries. The stories claims that upon entering an ale house or a brewery he would demand a mug or tankard of ale, pour half of it on a bench and then sit in it for about half an hour without moving. For this task he most likely had leather pants, or so rumour has it. After sitting there, firmly, he would then try to rise. If he could do it without effort the ale was fit for cunsumption, if he was stuck and had problems getting up it was not deemed suitable for human consumption.

As time went by the duties of the ale-conner increased so he (it was almost always a man who had that job) had the authority to alter the price of beer if the beer/ale was deemed to be not adequate. This was a rather important and time consuming duty since the brewers were not slow to realize that if they increased the amount of beer they made but did not increase the amount of malt they would make more money. Of course this means a lower percentage of alcohol and if the practice was not noticed the brewer in question would make more money.

But now it is time to speculate a bit, because the thought of being an ale-conner would at first glance be a very nice job to have. Imagine that day after day you traveled the country and tasted beer of different kinds. Is that true that it would be a very good job? Well the problem would first be that if you were working before the introduction of hops the ale would not last long and thus not taste good if you werent there at the right time. Apart from that, do you think that you would be welcome? Most likely not. This was in a sense a tax collector and how popular are those even in modern times? Not much, but at least they are not threatened or beaten. Well not frequently at least.

Another thing to speculate about is that in order to be a good ale-conner you needed some knowledge on how to brew, what to look for if the person tried to cheat by adding things that should not be there. This makes the assumption that the ale-conner was a brewer himself, or at least had been in the trade, quite likely. Imagine going around assessing and perhaps having to shut down someone you know because they were not abiding by the law. Yes they were not doing what they should but it wouldnt make you popular, a snitch was not popular then either. As such the ale-conner had to swear an oath, a rather long one, in order to get the job. And if the ale-conner was found to take bribes or cheat, well oathbreakers were not really held in high regards neither in society or in a court of law.