Resurrecting an IPA: Cluster's Last Stand vs Pabst's Ballantine

Thanks to Jack for sending me samples. I also did a side by side tasting and found my impressions to be very similar to Jack's. I like both beers, but they are quite different. The Ballantine tastes pretty updated as far as the hop profile. It's a good IPA, with layers of different hop flavors, one I wouldn't hesitate to order. The Cluster's Last Stand tastes as I remember...a bit of a throwback to the early hoppy craft beers-which makes it fun.

 

I haven't had a chance to try Cluster's, but I was surprisingly pleased with Ballantine. I wanted Ballantine to be nostalgic. It was. As someone else said, it had a very decent head. I drank it at a restaurant with some spicy food. It was great. I am desperately desiring it on tap, but I'd have to drive out toward Philadelphia to get it. I'm from central PA, so it would be a decent length trip for a beer. But I have done crazier things before!

 

Glad that some here remember the original Newark version of Bally IPA.
It really was something special, and yes, different (in a good way) from the current Amrican IPAs. I consumed a LOT of the BIPA starting in 1969, through to the Naragannsett years (I was buying a sixer of it every few weeks for over 15 years back then).
After 1985 or so, it was considerably dumbed down until it ultimately disappeared altogether.

The new version from Pabst doesn't nail it exactly but comes closer than I could have imagined they would, and it is pretty decent in it's own right, evoking memories of the original surprisingly well. The original was a tad more aromatic, and I could do without the citrusy hints in the new version, but overall I'm impressed that they came as close as they did to re-creating it. If they tweak the formula just a bit, they will have nailed it. It would be nice if they long aged it
the way the original was (1 year) prior to packaging , but in any case it's good to have an old favorite back in a new form that's a very close re-creation of the original.
From Pabst, no less!
Let's hope Pabst's new owners keep up the good work.

p.s. if anyone is curious as to what regular Ballantine XXX ale tasted like back in the 60s-70s, grab a bottle of the present day XXX and mix it approx 60/40 with the new version of the India Pale, and you'll travel back in time a bit. I wonder if Pabst will get hip to that idea and get to work on fixing the XXX...

 

I found the grapefruit or citrus taste very strong in the beer. I agree with the poster above that a tweak would improve it and my suggestion would be to remove the kind of hops that give that taste and replace them with an earthy or stemmy taste, like Fuggles has or a good hybrid (Northern Brewer maybe). It's a good effort and well-made to be sure, but it could be more true to its roots, IMO.

 

Last night I did a compare of the two. It wasn't quite fair to the Cluster's because it was going a bit off, the other taster agreed, referring to a "cheesy" note. Still, enough of the original taste was there to make a fair comparison.

I found them actually quite similar, both with a strongish citrus note (grapefruit, lemon). The Cluster had a slight blackcurrant note (musky foresty taste) which makes sense based on other Cluster beers I've had, but the topnote was the citrus again. Same even more so for the Bally which was very fresh by the way, no hint of tiredness. (I actually have tasted now two Bally's some months apart in presumed production, and the older one did show some over-age. The beer is clearly not pasteurized - a definite plus - and should be drunk as new as possible).

Neither beer reminded me really of the 80's-90's Ballantine and even less of the 1970's one. Apparently, the Bally IPA made in the last years up to '96 used some Cascade hops, not all but some, the rest is said to be Bullion. So, when Pabst says that old-time tasters consider the beer similar to what they recall, in a sense I get that because the Cascade used in the 80's and 90's would have lent its classic citric/floral note. However, I drank a fair bit of that version too, and while I won't say it was without any citric character, it wasn't dominant like it is now. In that period, Liberty Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Boulder Bitter and other emerging APA beers had the character now considered typical of APA but I never considered Ballantine IPA at the time similar to these, it was different, more English basically. Writers of the day didn't compare the two either, eg. in Jim Robertson's book he never said Liberty Ale or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale reminded him of Ballantine IPA. I think he called Ballantine IPA "pungent" but that's pretty much as far as he went, Michael Jackson too doesn't really state the nature of the taste apart possibly from implying it was a Brewer's Gold character.

And this is true even more so in the 70's when I'd doubt any "C hops" were used in the beer, they were too new at the time.

And so, a very interesting comparison, to which just beer to beer I'd give the nod to Ballantine IPA. It's really an excellent beer, very well made, but very APA in style, namely the type of pale ale inaugurated by Liberty Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, New Albion Ale, and also Bert Grant's IPA. New school, not old, IMHO.

 

I just tried your approach a couple days ago, and I have to agree, the XXX is pretty damned good mixed 60/40 with Ballantine IPA. I also hope Pabst wises up and fixes the XXX in the future.