If you could bring back one beer

Ballantine XXX Ale as brewed by Ballantine near the end of the Newark brewery (about '72-73). A six pack of king size cans (16 oz) found after Falstaff's version had appeared in California. It was the only Newark-brewed ale we ever found, and it was treated as a special find when shared among friends. It might have been a year old, but it seemed perfect at the time. A lot of great beers since then, but that Ballantine would be a standout for me even today.

 

If you have a few million dollars you still have a chance to bring it back!

 

Totally agree. I had the opportunity to meet Jim Koch and asked him about the Imperial Hallertau Pils and if they were ever going to bring it back. The response started with a chuckle and then an explanation of the production cost of the beer. (There was my answer.) Unfortunately it didn't align with their target market but struck a chord with some of us beer nerds. $ outweighs the select group of nerds and that equals a big .

 

Bridgeport IPA (out of Portland)

 

This is a tough one, but if I had to pick one off the top of my head, Lagunitas Born Yesterday.

 

Old timers on the forums used to say that Cantillon beers used to be found fairly easily in stores in US, so my vote goes to Cantillon anything. Plus their styles leave no worries about the issues with freshness in stores.

Runner up Founders Curmudgeon.

 

Did Cantillon shut down and I didn't notice? Beers that are harder to come by now are very different from beers that are no longer made.
Even back when they weren't something that would be announced and allocated to best customers, Cantillon was still hard to find.

 

Early Firestone Walker Double Jack that you could only get in the bomber bottles. Finding that stuff fresh was like manna from heaven. I drove down to Paso Robles a few times with DJ being one of the reasons for driving 2.5 hours south.

FW has rereleased it from time to time but it is not the same.

 

Definitely not the same, agreed. That was one of my absolute favorite DIPAs back in the day, and I could usually find it reasonably fresh. That and OG Ruination were go-to’s

 

You reminded me.. I have some leftover. I should probably drink this one of these days.

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Jealous! I’d love to hear how it’s held up after this long

 

Sierra Nevada Stout. Irreplaceable as far as I've been able to find.

 

In general, I miss regular stouts. SN was a semi-frequent purchase for me though

 

Agreed about regular stouts being rare these days, what i loved about SNs take was that it had a delightful hop note when fresh.

 

When I first ran across Sierra Nevada in the 80s, I much preferred the porter over the stout, and thought at the time that the pale ale was a bit thin.

 

They're delightfully different beers for sure. I wouldn't mind having their porter back as well, but there's comparable options on the market still for that one. The stout was a unique beer that I can't find a replacement for now that it's gone

 

I was just reading some links provided by JessKidden and went down the Google rabbit hole to find an article about Portland Brewing’s Woodstock IPA. The article said that it was a tribute to Ballantine IPA which was aged in oak. The Woodstock IPA had a little hint of oak from chips added to the fermenter and was really a great beer that preceded the “hops arms race“ that followed in the mid-Aughts.

I never was fortunate enough to try Ballantine IPA, but I am glad that I got to try so many cases of Woodstock. I had forgotten about it and had no idea it was a Ballintine tribute until this week, it really was a great easy-going beer that seemed to just want to taste good instead of trying to out hop all of its competitors.

Does anyone here who had both beers know if they were at all similar?

 

I think Falstaff might be interesting to make a comeback.
Sounds unlikely though.

 

Kate the Great.

 

Selkirk Abbey's Cuvee de la Nuit Profonde. SA was firing on all cylinders back then and that was the best beer they made.