Ballantine IPA

Jeff, I do the same. Having state that, how do we homebrewers really know what we are getting?

Cheers!

 

Some is knowing the aroma of the hop. Some of it gets down to trusting the supplier.

 

I occasionally go to an old man bar in Philly that has Schmidt cans and everyone just pretends that they are Schmidt's.
Ballantine IPA was one of the first "good" beers that I drank in the 70's. XXX was my favorite quart (before 40 oz. were invented) at the time. I have 2 each of 2015 and 2016 Burton Ales waiting for an appropriate time to drink. I was saving them to try along side of the rumored ones they had/have ageing. The recent IPA was good and in my rotation.

 

Did you get to try Old Tankard Ale before they retired it (again)?

 

After Falstaff began brewing the Ballantine ales, the only quart bottle used for XXX Ale that I recall were the "no return" stubby quart bottles - which, having been familiar with the old Newark "Bumper" quart bottles, I did not like at all. But now I kinda miss 'em. Here's a quickie Photoshopped recreation of what they sorta looked like:


Can't remember or find a pic of a throw-away quart for XXX Ale from the Newark era, either - but they must of had 'em by '72.

But I do recall that Falstaff was still using returnable Steinie quarts for Ballantine Beer in the 1970s. (As with other returnable bottles, Falstaff even continued to use Newark era returnable shells [cases]). I still have one for the brown steinie quart bottles that I used for homebrewing.


Again, not certain when Falstaff started using the 40 oz. bottles for Ballantine Ale. The the original "40's" began back in the 1960s, and Narragansett was selling both Croft Ale and Narragansett beer in their classic "Imperial Quart" (38.43 oz.) bottles starting in the late 1950s - sometimes advertised as the "Biggest Bottle of Beer in the State".

A few years later Carling (with a brewery in NE in Mass.) released:

 

The folks at Anchor would like a word with you.

 

The folks who incorrectly make these claims on their website?

(No "search" feature on their website, but the brewery has in the past also claimed that no US beers were being dry-hopped when Liberty Ale was first released in the '70s, and that Anchor was the only "Steam Beer" available after Repeal.)

Maybe they're not the best ones to criticize others' accuracy ...

 

I'm just going to go with (also from their site)

from Wikipedia, and we know that they are never wrong

They couldn't put it on the internet if it wasn't true.

 

I bought a case and had it shipped to me. Twas good but honestly, I don't miss it.
Now, bringing back a close resemblance of XXX in its glory days would be something to talk aboot.

 

Was it Ballantine that started bottling in soda-like plastic liter bottles for a while? Or am I mistaking another brand that went that weird route.

 

I don't think so. I recall - briefly - some UK "macro" ales (Watney or John Courage?) decades ago.

And MC did convert some of their malt liquors to brown plastic 40s (heavier than the soda bottles) a few years back, but I don't think the Pabst-owned brands use them?

 

Looking at pictures of the 40 ounce bottles I may have been mistaking them with those later imports.

 

Regardless of verbiage that exists on the Anchor website I am of the opinion that the American craft movement started when Fritz Maytag purchased Anchor in 1965. Anchor Brewing was in dire financial straits then and without the purchase by Fritz Maytag and capital infusion to make improvements we likely would not be drinking beers like Anchor Steam, Liberty Ale, etc. today.

The next craft brewery to open was in 1976: The New Albion Brewery in Sonoma, CA. The first beer they made was an American Pale Ale of New Albion Ale.

Cheers!

P.S. And the 'best' part of all is that Anchor is now using 'real' dates on the packaged beers. Woo-Hoo!

 

Anchor Steam is one of my favorites. Sadly, all I can get locally is Steam, Liberty and Porter (2017 was the last year the holiday ale was available here); the distributor doesn't even carry any of their other beers.

 

Oh, I'm not say they're wrong in that, but they've made so many other provably inaccurate claims that (by my way of thinking, at least) they've lost the right to criticize others' errors. Why just yesterday, reading Jack's post:

...I thought, "Gee, was it '65? I thought it was later than that..." . (Of course, initially Maytag only bought a 51% controlling interest, as noted in the link below, buying the rest in 1969.) Checked some reliable (hopefully) sources and came across this CNBC article in which it is also claimed:

Wha!
There were many porters brewed in the US after Repeal, such as:

and a few right up to '72 and beyond (Yuengling, Stegmaier, Narragansett, and draught-only Ballantine and Krueger to name the most obvious).

And "the only dark beer in America" in the 1970s? C'mon, there were probably still scores of them - seasonal bocks, the above porters, a few bottle/canned and numerous draught-only "dark (lager) beers" including from well-known national brewers like AB and Schlitz.

 

I'll happily take your word for that.
There wasn't a lot of variety in mid-70's central Florida. Miller & AB filled the shelves, Heineken & Lowenbrau were exotic imports, Coor's was a unicorn since it wasn't distributed east of the Mississippi (the whole plot of Smokey and the Bandit), and we could occasionally get Stroh's or Hamm's.

 

Yeah, Florida was one of the earliest market to become dominated by the big brewers, which moved into the region heavily after WWII. Here are some FTC market share stats for the mid-70s:

More than 3/4 of the beer from AB and Schlitz in '74 at a time when their combined national market share was only 38.4%. AB (Jacksonville and Tampa) and Schlitz (Tampa) both had breweries in the state, of course, and Pabst was only a couple of hundred miles away in Georgia.

Then in '77, the Big 3 at 85.5% (!) of Florida's market when nationally it was 52%.

 

We used to enjoy going to Busch Gardens in Tampa, they gave out free sample ponies at the end of the tour. As long as you looked 18 you could take about as much as you could carry.

Which is why, unless they aren't available, Bud, Bud Light, and Michelob are still the only beers my brother will buy.

 

My good friend lives near Jacksonville and drinks exclusively Bud Light. I was shocked to hear that they do not sell Bud Light in 30 packs, only 24 pack cases.

This is completely mindblowing to me because I'm pretty sure Floridians drink more Bud than they do water. Old blue law or is he just not looking in the right places?

 

Yes. I thought it was OK, but that is a beer that I never drank when it was "original".