Make Mine a Ballantine
During the late 1960s and 1970s, when I was young and did a fair amount of traveling, one beer I was fond of was Ballantine XXX Ale. It was an ale rather than a lager, and it had a very noticeable hop character and presence. At a time when other American beers were becoming increasingly bland and less distinguishable from each other, here was one that was distinctive, with a lingering hop finish.
Mention the name Ballantine to others old enough to appreciate beers from that era, and you will receive smiles and knowing looks that evoke admiration and glowing tributes. As longtime craft beer enthusiast, elder statesman and writer Fred Eckhardt wrote in 2000, “Ballantine IPA would be a good choice for the greatest and most enduring American brewing triumph of the early and mid-20th century.”
And if that is not enough to pique a beer lover’s interest, there was Ballantine Burton Ale, one of the rarest and most illustrious American beers ever brewed. A beer that, after 60 years or more, is cause today for celebration when a bottle comes to light and is opened by beer connoisseurs.
The Pride of Newark
The long history of these beers goes back to 1820, when 29-year-old Peter Ballantine emigrated from Scotland to America and found a brewing job in Albany, New York. After some years, the enterprising young brewer started his own brewery, which in 1840 he moved to Newark, New Jersey, in order to be closer to the growing New York City market. His family followed him and, by the 1870s, P. Ballantine and Sons was the fifth largest brewer in the US. Peter Ballantine remained active in the business until his death in 1883 at age 91. His heirs continued to do well until the untimely arrival of Prohibition in 1919, during which time they produced malt syrup and diversified into other fields.
With the Twenty-First Amendment and Prohibition’s repeal in 1933 came a major change. The company was purchased from the founding family by German-American brewing equipment salesman Carl Badenhausen and his brother Otto. They grew the business quickly to again become a major player in the East Coast beer market. By the early 1950s, Ballantine was brewing more than 5 million barrels per year as the third largest American brewer behind Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch.
Ballantine was an early sponsor of TV programs and major league sports broadcasts. Both Yankee Stadium in New York and Shibe Park in Philadelphia (former home of the Phillies) featured large Ballantine signs. Ballantine also had a connection with American writers. John Steinbeck appeared in a 1950s magazine ad for Ballantine Ale, and Ernest Hemingway made his only beverage endorsement, saying, “You have to work hard to deserve to drink it. But I would rather have a bottle of Ballantine Ale than any other drink after fighting a really big fish.” Hunter S. Thompson mentioned the beer in his book, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.”
All Hail the Ale
Although the majority of their production beginning in the early 20th Century was lager, Ballantine was unique among large American breweries because they continued to brew several ales, perhaps as a nod to the founder’s Scottish roots. The most popular was Ballantine XXX Ale, the ancestor of today’s American pale ales. The original recipe had a starting gravity of about 1.055, an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume, and was bittered to 35–40 IBUs. There is debate about the hop varieties, which were likely Cluster for bittering and Bullion and/or Brewers Gold for flavor; later there may have been Cascade for aroma.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, at the dawn of the American craft brewing revolution, one ale pioneering microbrewers were likely to know — and sometimes try to emulate — was Ballantine XXX. Many of the popular craft-brewed American pale ales from that period were influenced to some degree by this beer. Of the yeast strains available at the time, the Ballantine ale yeast was relatively neutral and noted for stable fermentation and high attenuation under varying temperatures and conditions. It became a fixture of early microbrewing that continues into the present.
I spoke with Sierra Nevada Brewing co-founder and president Ken Grossman about this subject. His recollection is that there were only a limited number of yeast strains available in 1979 as he and his former partner Paul Camusi made the transition from homebrewing to commercial brewing. They experimented until they achieved the desired fermentation and flavor profile for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. “We didn’t know that it was the Ballantine yeast,” he said, “but it very well could have been.”
While each brewery’s “house yeast” strain has evolved over time, it is widely believed that the Ballantine ale yeast strain is the ancestor of today’s most popular
homebrewing strain, now available as Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) and as Fermentis Safale US-05.
Good, Better and Best
Even more celebrated than Ballantine XXX, both during its heyday and in memory today, was Ballantine IPA, one of the very few and by far the best-known American example of this style from the 1940s into the 1980s. For that era, it was a hop monster — bittered to 60 IBUs and possessing a distinctive hop character, enhanced by the use of hop oil for the late additions. The brewery powdered the hops, added water and then used a vacuum process to distill the essential oils with steam at low temperatures.
Ballantine IPA was a strong beer, about 18 °Plato (SG 1.074) original gravity and 7.5% alcohol by volume. Additionally, it was aged for a year in tanks lined with American oak, which gave it a noticeable oak flavor. The historical English IPAs were shipped in oak casks for their long voyage to India, but the interior of the casks was coated with pitch that largely prevented the wood from influencing the beer.
The most legendary and strongest of all the Ballantine offerings was Ballantine Burton Ale. This dark ruby red prototype for American barley wine was reportedly more than 10% alcohol by volume, and only brewed very occasionally — possibly only twice. It was patiently aged for ten years or more in similar oak-lined tanks as the IPA. Never offered for sale to the public, the potent elixir was instead bottled individually each year prior to the Christmas holidays and presented as gifts to brewery employees, distributors, VIPs and celebrities. Last released in 1971, the label for each bottle bore the brewing and bottling dates, the name of the recipient and the signatures of brewery owners Carl and Otto Badenhausen. The late British beer writer Michael Jackson speculated that Ballantine Burton Ale was the inspiration for microbrewery pioneer Fritz Maytag’s recipe for what is now called Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale.
During the ensuing years, bottles of the Burton Ale have been discovered that were intended for the likes of Yankees and Mets manager Casey Stengel, New York’s Francis Cardinal Spellman, real estate developer Del Webb and entertainer Milton Berle. After well over half a century, they have been opened and tasted with great fanfare. While time has contributed sherry-like notes, the beer is said to have stood up well, still displaying considerable aroma and flavor complexity. Bottles appear sporadically for sale on eBay at prices in line with their scarcity.
Among those who have been fortunate enough to sample this renowned brew are avid homebrewer and former craft beer entrepreneur Bob Girolamo, now of Chico, California. He purchased three bottles of Ballantine Burton Ale, and shared one of them on July 4, 2005 with Denny Conn of Noti, Oregon, a popular contributor to many Internet homebrewing forums. According to the label, it was brewed on May 12, 1934, and bottled more than 14 years later in December 1948, where it had remained for more than half a century longer. They very carefully decanted the bottle of 71-year-old ale into a pitcher, sniffing the aroma and sipping judiciously during the course of an hour as they took careful notes. Conn wrote, “The aroma (of cherry and plum) was simply amazing, constantly evolving over that time.”
The (Less) Bitter End
The great wave of mergers and consolidation that swept American brewing beginning about 1960 was not kind to Ballantine. They had purchased a rival Newark brewery in 1943, but did not buy or build breweries in other cities in order to expand their regular distribution west of Chicago. By 1965, production had fallen to ninth place among American brewers and the company began to lose money. Finally, in 1969, Ballantine was sold to a group of outside investors, who less than three years later again sold the beers, but not the Newark brewery location, to Falstaff Brewing for $4.3 million and a 50-cent royalty per barrel produced, considered a bargain at the time. Falstaff had excess capacity at other breweries, and production of the Ballantine beers was moved to Cranston, Rhode Island. Some of the brewery equipment came with them, and at first an attempt was made to preserve the original recipes and brewing methods.
However, the Burton Ale was neither brewed nor bottled again, and the gravity and bittering of both the XXX Ale and the IPA were gradually reduced, as was the aging time. The distilled hop oil was replaced by dry hopping. Falstaff did not fare well in those turbulent times for American brewers, and in 1979 Ballantine production moved again to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where it remained until 1990 after a merger with Pabst Brewing in 1985. The Ballantine beers were next brewed in Milwaukee from 1990 to 1996, at which time the flagship Pabst brewery was closed. The closure also marked the demise of Ballantine IPA. The oak-lined tanks had survived the various moves from Newark to Cranston to Ft. Wayne to Milwaukee, where they are now said to sit empty in the idle former Pabst location.
During the years from 1996 to 2001, Ballantine XXX Ale was brewed intermittently at Pabst-owned operations in Tumwater, Washington, San Antonio, Texas, and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Finally, in 2001, Pabst closed the last of its breweries and became strictly a marketing company, contracting the brewing to Miller (now MillerCoors). At first they brewed Ballantine XXX in Eden, North Carolina; today it is brewed at the MillerCoors facility in Trenton, Ohio.
The current Ballantine XXX Ale is a shadow of its former self, more of an American malt liquor than a true ale, with a somewhat higher alcohol content (5.1 percent by volume) and more bittering (reportedly 21 IBUs) than standard American lagers, which gives it more flavor than its competitors for that segment of the market. And though among its popular current packages is the decidedly down-market 40 oz. (1.2 L) plastic bottle, it continues to enjoy some status among those who know it as a token of a time when it was a proud symbol of some of the best beer American brewers had to offer. Homebrewers can savor something similar to the original Ballantine beers by brewing the clone recipes that follows.
Ballantine XXX (original recipe) clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.055 FG = 1.011
IBU = 39 SRM = 9 ABV = 5.7%
Ingredients
8 lbs. (3.6 kg) six-row pale malt
2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) flaked maize (corn)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) light Munich malt
8 oz. (0.23 kg) crystal malt (20 °L)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
7 AAU Cluster hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 7% alpha acids)
4 AAU Brewers Gold hops (25 min.)(0.5 oz./14 g at 8% alpha acids)
0.75 oz. (21 g) Brewers Gold hops (5 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Cascade hops (dry hops)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Fermentis Safale US-05 yeast (1.5 qt./1.4 L yeast starter)
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Single infusion mash, 60 minutes at 150 °F (66 °C). Boil wort for 90 minutes. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C).
Ballantine XXX (original recipe) clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.055 FG = 1.014
IBU = 39 SRM = 9 ABV = 5.3%
Ingredients
7.25 lbs. (3.3 kg) American light lager liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Munich liquid malt extract
8 oz. (0.23 kg) crystal malt (20 °L)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
7 AAU Cluster hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 7% alpha acids)
4 AAU Brewers Gold hops (25 min.)(0.5 oz./14 g at 8% alpha acids)
0.75 oz. (21 g) Brewers Gold hops (5 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Cascade hops (dry hops)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Fermentis Safale US-05 yeast (1.5 qt./1.4 L yeast starter)
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Place crushed specialty grains in a coarse bag and steep in 0.5 gallon (2 L) 140–150 °F (60–66 °C) water for 30 minutes. Add the steeping water to the kettle with the malt extract at the beginning of the boil. Boil 90 minutes. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C).
Ballantine Brewing Co.’s Ballantine IPA clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.074 FG = 1.016
IBU = 62 SRM = 9 ABV = 7.4%
Ingredients
11.5 lbs. (5.2 kg) 6-row pale malt
2.4 lbs. (1.1 kg) flaked maize
1.75 lbs. (0.79 kg) light Munich malt
8 oz. (0.23 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
13.3 AAU Cluster hop pellets (60 min.) (1.9 oz./53 g at 7% alpha acids)
8 AAU Brewers Gold hop pellets (25 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 8% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) East Kent Golding hop pellets (3 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) East Kent Golding hop pellets (dry hop)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
East Coast Yeast ECY10 (Old Newark Ale), Lallemand BRY-97, Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Single infusion mash for 60 minutes at 150 °F (66 °C). Boil wort for 90 minutes adding the hops at the times indicated. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). Add dry hops after primary fermentation dies down and leave beer on dry hops for five to seven days. Bottle or keg as usual.
Ballantine Brewing Co.’s Ballantine IPA clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.074 FG = 1.016
IBU = 62 SRM = 9 ABV = 7.4%
Ingredients
8.5 lbs. (3.86 kg) American light lager liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Munich liquid malt extract
8 oz. (0.23 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
13.3 AAU Cluster hop pellets (60 min.) (1.9 oz./53 g at 7% alpha acids)
8 AAU Brewers Gold hop pellets (25 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 8% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) East Kent Golding hop pellets (3 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) East Kent Golding hop pellets (dry hop)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
East Coast Yeast ECY10 (Old Newark Ale), Lallemand BRY-97, Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Place crushed specialty grains in a coarse bag and steep in 2 quarts (2 L) of water at 140–150 °F (60–66 °C) for 30 minutes. Add the steeping water to the kettle with the malt extract at the beginning of the boil. Boil for 60 minutes adding hops at times indicated. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). Add dry hops after primary fermentation dies down and leave beer on dry hops for five to seven days. Bottle or keg as usual.
