Chicago, September 2007. Work party at the University of Chicago, a week into my first job ever. Ice bucket full of soft drinks and a few weird looking bottles with a green label. It was SNPA. I've never been the same since.
I can't even imagine how many of those "weird looking bottles" I'd had by 2007. (sorry, just yankin' yer chain )
Pretty sure it was Sam Adams. Proof that marketing works I had seen enough commercials to think it was a step up and bought some Boston Lager, probably a sixer or a twelver. my first moment really was a year or two later after someone told me to try some arrogant bastard and I got decked in the mouth with that level of aggression and flavor.
Given your avatar I thought for sure you would state Ballantine IPA in 19xx. Cheers! P.S. Hmm, as anybody in the thread (so far) listed Ballantine IPA as their first craft beer?
I first ran across Ballantine IPA in the 80s after S&P had worked its magic on it. It tasted to me like strong malt liquor with a wisp of roasted malt. I wouldn't have called it craft. The 21st century resurrection was better.
How widely available was it in the 70's and 80's Jack? Prior to joining BA, I confess I'd never heard of it.
Short answer: I don't know how widely it was available. Longer answer below with highlight in bold. This was Ballantine IPA as brewed by Ballantine brewery: "I remember when I was a kid walking around the Retail Beer Distributor with my father (he would always buy a case of Piels Real Draft then) seeing a number of 'exotic' beers from far off places. Was this just a Philly area thing? I did not pay attention to prices then (since I was not buying) but I imagine those imports were quite expensive when compared to my father's purchase of Piels. I also took note of Ballantine IPA since they came in boxes that looked like wood which I thought was cool." Cheers!
During P. Ballantine & Sons heyday (1930s- mid-1960s) they eventually had national distribution of Ballantine Ale and east coast distribution of their AAL, Ballantine Beer. Some of their Ale distributors apparently also order their India Pale Ale (pretty sure I've seen some Texas, Florida and Calif. distributors carrying it in the 40s and 50s). By the "craft era" 1980s, and with Paul Kalmanovitz operating Falstaff, they used so-called multi-state master distributors for some of the Ballantine and Narragansett brands (like Haffenreffer), so they would sometimes be found in regions outside of their normal marketing areas, like the California ads above. Pretty sure I remember a well-known beer bar, ____ ******y, in L.A. carrying it, too. Both Ken Grossman and Fritz Maytag have mentioned finding it in California in the 1970s, as well.
Friends and I found a single back-of-the-cooler sixpack of 16 oz cans Ballantine brewed XXX Ale on a foray to Los Angeles. We got together for a tasting, knowing that the brewery had recently closed. That ale had off-the-charts malt and hops character. I didn't see the IPA until the '80s.
In the late 70's and early 80's, most liquor stores near Elizabeth NJ carried Ballantine IPA. They didn't sell much, but they carried it.
From the GABF programs for Falstaff's BALLANTINE INDIA PALE ALE: *Although, P. Ballantine & Sons' original was "Aged in Wood One Year" - said so right on the label
Yeah, and in that era before bar codes, sometimes a cashier would just look up "Ballantine ale" and you might be charged the XXX Ale price, rather than the IPA price that kept going up during that period - Falstaff dumbed down the beer and raised up the price. (I was paying $1.79 for XXX and $2.60 for the IPA in the late 70s - by the early 80s, the IPA was $4.75 in NJ - according to my old notes).
Henry Weinhard Private Reserve in 1978. We bought it in Hobbs NM when the grocery store had a special on Amstel(I think) but they ran out and offered the Weinhard at the discounted price. We were immediately hooked. Then it disappeared, but my taste in beer was forever altered.
My daughter ordered one in Brugge last week because she saw the people at the table next to us drinking one. She loved it. I still have the glass/stand but it's never been unpacked since we moved 7 years ago.
I never saw Ballantine IPA in the 70s, living in southern CA, Chicago, and then Long Island. I regularly saw (and drank) Ballantine XXX in southern CA and Long Island. So the IPA seems to have been pretty thinly distributed. I'm pretty sure I would have tried the IPA then had I seen it. Distributors probably said "I won't stock two ales. I can't sell the one." I found the IPA once in the 80s, but don't think it was on one of my regular beer buying routes. I wasn't going to buy more after that first six pack, anyway.
Not sure if this was a craft beer then (the category didn't exist until later); today I think it would be: Ballantine IPA, in 1976 or 77. I remember buying a 6 pack, it was a little more expensive than standard (AAL) beers of the time. I didn't care for it; my reaction was: if I want to taste citrus, I'll eat a grapefruit.
