Why no "American adjunct ales"?

Roudy · Feb 4, 2014

jesskidden said: ↑

There were hundreds (< ah, probably? - certainly in the 3 digits) of US adjunct ales in the post-Repeal era. The survivors - most mere shadows of what they were only 2 or 3 decades ago - include Ballantine XXX Ale, McSorley's, Lord Chesterfield, Rainier, Genesee Cream and 12 Horse, Schoenling's Little Kings. Other notably US ales included Carling Red Cap Ale and Black Horse Ale (originally a Canadian brand brewed by at least four US breweries in the northeast). Sterling Ale and Drewrys Ale both had large markets beyond their mid-West home. Besides Ballantine (once tied for second with AB for US breweries), Pabst was probably the largest US brewer that made ales - in their case, Pabst Ale and Old Tankard Ale. The later was the longest-lived, and was last brewed in the early 90s.

As for AB and MC, Miller had a shortlived Miller Ale in the 60s, AB brewed Regal Ale for a brief time in the late 50s (a label they got when they bought American in Miami only to have to sell it due to anti-trust violations) and had a short-lived O-Doul's Ale in the 70s. Since ale in the US was primarily a northeast product (most every major and local brewery in New England, NY, NJ and PA brewed an ale), Coors' first ale that I can think of was Killian's in the early 80s, which, of course, was later in the decade converted to a lager.

As for yeast, many US brewers of both ale and lager maintained separate facilities (brewhouse, fermentation, aging) to keep their ale yeast and lager yeast separate and their house yeast strains pure. Later, the so-called "bastard ale" style was developed to get around that costly method, which were "ales" that were fermented at higher temps but with the brewers own bottom fermenting lager yeast. Notable examples of the survivors included Rainier Ale, Yuengling's LCA and, probably, the Miller-brewed, Pabst-marketed imposter labeled "Ballantine XXX Ale".
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Here's a photo of my can collection, mostly picked from the roadside around 1968-75.

The Pabst Old Tankard Ale is on the bottom row and the Genesee is the third row on the right. The vast majority of these are lagers. Note however that BMC had Budweiser Malt Liquor and Miller Malt Liquor (bottom row). Hard to believe they were damaging their brand with those products back then.

Sponan · Feb 4, 2014

DoubleORepresenter said: ↑

I wasn't asking why BMC doesn't produce high quality beers. I was just asking why they don't make mass-produced, mediocre ales like they do with lagers. Haha.
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That market is already filled with mediocre ales produced by "craft brewers". I also know homebrewers that will provide mediocre ale or free.

kdb150 · Feb 4, 2014

jesskidden said: ↑

That is why I worded that as I did:

since some fruit and other additives will contribute some fermentable material - although I doubt you'll find many "craft brewers" would use the term "adjunct" (or even the B.A.'s convoluted "adjunct to enhance rather than lighten flavor" phrase) for those types of ingredients. Nor are they using them primarily to supplement barley malt.
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A lot of fruit beers do use fruit to provide sugar for fermentation, including traditionally-made fruit lambics, as well as for flavor. So calling something a "flavoring addition" really doesn't disqualify it as a supplement (or complement) to barley malt. It can be both.

And just because "craft brewers" wouldn't call it an adjunct doesn't mean it's not an adjunct.

Why no "American adjunct ales"?

Roudy Initiate (0) Aug 20, 2009 Georgia

Sponan Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2008 Tennessee

kdb150 Initiate (0) Mar 8, 2012 Pennsylvania

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