He was born in Flekkefjord as a son of ship-owner and consul Christopher Beer (1770–1839) and Anne Malene Tjørsvaag (1772–1820).
[1][2] He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1836, representing the rural constituency of Lister og Mandals Amt.
[3] In 1830 he bought some land at Øysanden near Fedafjorden in Kvinesdal,[4] establishing a farm.
According to Wollert Keilhau, "he did rational farming, which one then got to see for the first time in those corners of the country".
[5] He finally pulled out of Flekkefjord's ship industry in 1854, and died in June 1881 in Kvinesdal.