Tom Crean was the Irish-born right-hand man of famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. When their ship, the Endurance, was wedged between ice floes and broke apart in 1914, the two men undertook a voyage in a tiny lifeboat across 800 miles of frigid, ice-choked ocean to look for help. When they arrived on desolate South Georgia island, they trekked for days across mountains and glaciers to reach a whaling station before bringing back help for their stranded crew. Everyone survived.

Such stouthearted heroism deserves a hale and hearty ale in its honor, and the new Endurance Pale Ale, a/k/a Tom Crean’s Ale, is just the thing. Launched by Endurance Brewing Company earlier this summer — it’s contract-brewed by Mercury Brewing Co., in Ipswich — Crean’s is a fine pale ale with which to toast the waning days of summer. (And, we shiver to say, to warm the soul as autumn and winter approach.)

Like Crean himself, who was reputedly a modest and self-effacing man, the beer named for him is simple and unassuming. A regal, bright copper with a firm off-white head, it has some faint floral notes, sharpened with a noticeable tang of citrus. It drinks easy, with a restrained nutty-toasty malt character that gives way to a crisp dryness. In short, it’s a good, basic, well-rounded ale.

After his epic adventures at the bottom of the world, Crean returned home to Ireland and opened the South Pole Inn, a pub in Annascaul, County Kerry. He may have been a modest man, but he would’ve been silly not to have his namesake beer on tap there.

Endurance Pale Ale is available at Charles Street Liquors, Boston; Downtown Wine and Spirits, Somerville; Marty’s Liquors, Allston; and Martignetti’s, Brighton.