Maybe the Mayflower Was A Floating Beer Hauler

What would Thanksgiving be without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and beer?

Beer? you ask.

According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association in Alexandria, Va., beer was an important part of the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621.

Most of the water in Europe was tainted, and colonists carried their distrust of the water supply to the New World. Beer was an everyday addition to their diet because brewers boiled the water used to make beer, killing harmful microbes.

Pilgrims allegedly halted their 65-day trans-Atlantic journey on the Mayflower because they had run out of beer and disembarked Nov. 11, 1620, at Plymouth Rock in what is now Massachusetts. Leader William Bradford wrote in his diary, “We could not now take much time for further search, our victuals being much spent, especially, our beer.”

Early settlers considered beer an essential part of their daily lives. Because there were no trucks or distribution systems in those days to bring the brew to colonists, the town’s brew house was one of the first structures built in the new community.

American beer in the 1600s was dark and cloudy. Colonists flavored it with hops, a new ingredient found locally that could add a slightly bitter taste to the New World brew.

The NBWA represents family businesses that distribute beer. Whether today’s beer is imported or brewed domestically, its distribution ultimately depends on a large network of trucks.

And the turkey, stuffing, vegetables and fixings that make up the traditional Thanksgiving meal today are brought by truck as well — unless, like the Pilgrims, you raised all that yourself, with a little help from the natives.