Ale conner
{{Short description|Officer ensuring bread and beer quality}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
An ale-conner (sometimes aleconner or ale-kenner) was an officer appointed yearly at the court-leet of ancient English communities to ensure the quality of bread, ale, and beer, as well as regulating the measures in which they were sold and their prices.{{cite encyclopedia |year=1930 |title=Ale-conner |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |edition=14|volume=1|page=553 |language=en}} There were many different names for this position which varied from place to place: "ale-tasters", gustatores cervisiae, "ale-founders", and "ale-conners". Ale-conners were also often trusted to ensure that the beer was sold at a fair price.The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol I, London, Charles Knight, 1847, p.410.
Four ale-conners are still chosen annually by the Common-Hall of the City of London.{{cite web|url=https://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s30235/Item%207%20CoCo%20Bill%20Appendix%20elections%20in%20common%20hall.pdf|title=Appendix - Act of CoCo 2013 (elections in common hall)|website=cityoflondon.gov.uk|access-date=11 April 2023|year=2013}}
History
Ale-conners were sworn "to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at proper prices according to the assize; and also to present all defaults of brewers to the next court-leet." The mediaeval post of ale conner was far from a popular or sought-after position. Hops are a preservative, so before the introduction of hopping, ale would not keep well and had to be brewed on site, meaning there were many small breweries to visit. In addition, ale frequently "went off" for the same reason, so tasting it was not uniformly pleasant. Finally, as a representative of the authorities and dispenser of fines, an ale-conner could become unpopular in the community. Ale-conners sometimes had to be impressed into service, and the post was often rotated amongst a number of individuals.[http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk/2010/02/the-most-unpopular-job-in-greenwich/ The Most Unpopular Job in Greenwich]
Modern-day
=The City of London=
The tradition is still maintained in the City of London. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica reports:
{{blockquote|In London, four ale-conners, whose duty it is to examine the measures used by beer and liquor sellers to guard against fraud, are still chosen annually by the liverymen in common hall assembled on Midsummer Day. Since ale and beer have become excisable commodities, the custom of appointing ale-tasters has fallen into disuse in most places.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Ale-conner |url= |volume=1 |page=538}}}}
The officers were historically chosen by the liverymen of London to inspect the measures used in public houses. The title is now a sinecure.
In 2007, Dr Christine Rigden, past Sheriff of London, became one of the four ale conners, the first woman appointed to the position in the City of London in the role's 700-year history.{{cite web |title=The Verbal History of Beer |url=https://goddardsbrewery.com/about/our-history/ |website=Goddards Brewery |access-date=16 December 2024}}{{cite web |title=Common Hall 25 June 2018 |url=https://constructorscompany.org.uk/news/common-hall-25-june-2018/ |website=WCC |access-date=22 December 2024 |date=26 June 2018}}
=The Guildable Manor of Southwark=
Ale conners are still appointed by the Guildable Manor of Southwark.{{cite web |title=The Officers of the Guildable Manor |url=https://guildablemanor.org/officers.html |website=The Guildable Manor of Southwark |access-date=15 December 2024}}