A DROP of Mary Ann beer was described recently as a great ‘pick you up’ and so it is for cows as well, it seems.

The revival of the Mary Ann brand reminded a St Peter family of a bottle of brown ale they had had in the cupboard unopened for about 20 years – kept from the days that a drink of beer would be given to some cows to perk them up before a cattle show.

Kate Le Ruez, together with her parents, Beryl, and the late John Le Ruez, tended a prize-winning dairy herd at Auvergne Farm, until about six or seven years ago.

‘We knew we had a bottle of Mary Ann brown ale in a cupboard – it must have been there unopened for around 20 years,’ said Kate. ‘We used to give a bottle of beer to a cow sometimes if she had been calved a long time and looked a bit dull before a show.’

It was after 86-year-old Fayette Jackson – daughter of the Ann Street Brewery employee who first suggested the name Mary Ann – told the JEP that there was nothing like a good shot of Mary Ann to ‘pick you up’ that Kate remembered the bottle.

She said that they had not used the beer for some years before they stopped farming, and this bottle was just left over. She added that it had seemed to work quite well with the cows, although neither she, nor her parents, had ever drunk the beer to test the theory for themselves.

Another Islander is in possession of two unopened bottles of Mary Ann beer, now 36 years old. Joan Lowery, of St Helier, said that a cousin, the late Phil Benest, was an avid collector and on his 21st birthday in 1972, he had kept two bottles of Mary Ann pale ale.

It is unlikely that the beer in either case would be much good to drink now, however. Paul Hurley, head brewer of Jersey Brewery, part of the Liberation Group, which has revived the Mary Ann brand, said that, unlike some wine, beer did not mature with age. It would keep well for a year or so, but not for much longer than that.

Kate Le Ruez with her Island champion cow Maygan Louise and the 20-year-old unopened bottle of Mary Ann brown ale Picture: ROB CURRIE (00602113)