[camle]

self contradiction - it sez beer cam 3eover on the Mayflower, then it quotes (accurately) the ship's log stating that one of the main reasons it landed at Plymouth was that they needed beer.

[Gumlegs]

Maybe they ran out ... ?

My favorite quote re: near-beer is from Mark Twain. "The man who named it 'near-beer' was a poor judge of distance."

[Tony in Hawaii]

They brought the technology, but they were out of the actual product.

[gleeaikin]

They landed in New Englad because they needed beer. They needed beer because the water on board was rotten and beer was safer to drink. But if they were out of beer on the ship how were they going to get it in November? Were they going to use fresh water from the land and grain from the ship to brew it? Perhaps since they were no longer in European cities they discovered that fresh water was good to drink, as well as to make beer.