- Product Reviewed: Ballantine Burton Ale
- Brewed By: Ballantine & Sons, formerly of Newark, NJ (1840-1971)
- Form Reviewed: Bottle. Brewed 5/12/46, Bottled 11/66.
- Originally Posted to Usenet: November 11, 1999
- Added to the Tasting Notebook: November 19, 1999
- Postscript Added: December 21, 2002
Initial Impressions:
When Sy Levy received this bottle from the Ballantine Brewery as a Christmas gift in 1966, he apparently decided to save it for later consumption. Perhaps this would be a wedding anniversary, his daughter's 21st birthday, or his retirement from the brewery. For reasons unknown, Sy never found an adequate occasion befitting a beer of this caliber and history.
Ballantine is one of the great, historical American breweries. Prior to the rag and bone, nomadic existence that the Ballantine brand has experienced in the past 25 years, Ballantine was an independent regional brewery with a plant in Newark.
It was in Newark that the legend of Ballantine Burton Ale was born. Famous for the reputably excellent Ballantine IPA, the brewers at Newark made a special beer for private distribution. This beer was brewed to a very high gravity and designed for long periods of maturation in oak tanks. A limited bottling every Fall would be released to employees and friends of the brewers as gifts for the holiday. The special label (examples of which are periodically available on ebay) lists the date the beer was brewed, bottled, and the person for whom the gift was intended.
According to Fred Eckhardt in an interview I conducted several years ago, the Burton Ale was a very strong beer of unknown gravity, with over 60 IBU's of bitterness and a lengthy period in the wood. Eckhardt suggests that this beer has its roots prior to prohibition. This is a sensible assumption. As Ballantine dated its origins in Newark to 1840, it is not hard to imagine the brewery tapping into the old New England tradition of strong stock ale. The Burton Ale can be viewed as a fostering of this tradition, perhaps one of the last remaining examples.
Very little exists on what this beer tasted like. Jackson describes the beer as "strong, amber-red, (and) well hopped". Ballantine's IPA was brewed to a strength of 1.078; it's not a terrific leap to assume that the Burton Ale was significantly stronger, perhaps bigger than 1.100. Jackson does remark that his "1950's edition" reminded him of a "very aromatic, hoppy barleywine." Jackson does not mention strength, nor does he specify if the 1950's referred to brewing or bottling date. He did drink the beer "more than 25 years" after the 1950's reference.
Readers of rec.food.drink.beer in Usenet may recall John Staradumsky's notes on this beer. John's bottle was brewed on May 12 1934 and bottled in December, 1941. (John's review, dated 6/7/99, can be found on dejanews.com). John estimates the strength at 10%. Not surprisingly, the 57 year-old beer wasn't very "beery tasting", though Staradumsky reports a sophisticated flavor profile replete with vanilla, flavors reminiscent of scotch whisky, and alcoholic warmth.
I invited Don Scheidt to share in this experience. Don was accompanied by a bottle of Hanssens Oud Kriek and Peters Kolsch, to serve as exclamation marks for a glorious session, or as insurance incase the very old Burton Ale was unpalatable. The Burton Ale is in a 12-ounce green bottle with the aforementioned inscriptions printed on the label: "special brew * not for sale" and "Brewed especially for Sy Levy on May 12, 1946 bottled November, 1966".
I opened this bottle with a combination of awe and trepidation. The beer was brewed a few months before my parents were born, and bottled 17 months before I was born. The beer aged in oak for over 20 years, through the administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. It sat in the bottle for a further 33 years, experiencing conditions unknown. The barest hiss escapes from the bottle when opened. I pour it into two small brandy snifters, years of homebrewing experience allowing me to deftly maximize volume without introducing sediment.
The beer is strikingly beautiful. It's crystal clear and deep garnet in the glass. (The clarity is interesting as Jackson reported a slight haze in his sample).
Nose:
I immediately noticed a huge plummy, sherry burst wafting in the immediate vicinity even before bringing the glass up to my nose. This continues once I did bring the glass closer, of course; the plum is strong but not overwhelming. A hint of alcoholic warmth is also present in the aroma, with vanilla notes indicative of the two decades this beer spent in the wood. As the beer breathes, these oaky notes grow in strength.
Flavor:
We really had two beers when we tasted the Burton Ale. Initially, it opens with a tart maltiness, which quickly dissipates into a black hole of absolutely nothing. The middle is remarkably empty for a beer of such body and strength. A nice, apparent bitterness slowly emerges, ultimately coating the palate in the finish.
While I did allow this beer 30 minutes to warm a little before opening, the beer went through a transformation in the time spent in our glasses. It's as though it opened up while breathing and warming. A more sophisticated beer emerged, assuming a fruity note (Don thought apples, I went with pears) in addition to the plummy and oakiness. Where earlier my palate was coated in bitterness, now it's a tart fruitiness, all backed by a subtle, omnipresent alcoholic warmth.
Final Analysis:
This was a very remarkable tasting. I expected that this beer would not be palatable. At best, I figured on dominating sherry notes and other less desirable manifestations of oxidation overwhelming the experience. Happily, there was no tinniness or metallic flavors, no overwhelming sourness from an age-induced infection, and amazingly, no skunkiness from light, hops, and green bottles. The only detracting component of this beer was the initial emptiness of the middle -- a condition that subsided within several minutes.
An interesting, if not unexpected, aspect of the beer was the profound effect that 20 years in wood had on the flavor profile. The oakiness was always there, lingering in the background when not center stage. Also interesting was the dynamic nature of this beer. Some beers go through changes, sure, but I've not experienced a beer to have as comprehensive a make over in the flavor profile as this. It's more comparable to an expensive vintage Bordeaux than it is to beer in this regard.
I'd like to know more about the history of this beer. A coincidence, perhaps, but my bottle was brewed on May 12, 1946, while the bottle Staradumsky reviewed was brewed on May 12, 1934. Eckhardt spoke of a Steve Dafoe from New York who wrote about this beer in an issue of the long-defunct _Listen to Your Beer_ publication. Defoe found only four bottles of this beer in his research -- all empty -- the most fascinating of which was dated "brewed 5/12/46, bottled 11/12/66". I'd like to know how often this beer was brewed, how large the bottlings were, and any other information that can be compiled.
Don and I had a glass of history the other night, now I'd like to know more about that history.
Rating:
I've chosen not to rate this beer. There's no point, really.
Postscript (December 21, 2002):
Over the past three years, I received a couple of dozen emails regarding this beer, brewery, and review. One which came straight away following the posting of this review to rec.food.drink.beer was from the aforementioned Steve Dafoe. Unfortunately, with my move to Holland I no longer have access to that email. Poignant is the following correspondence that I received from Joseph Knapp on October 19, 2002, indicating the hold that the Ballantine Brewery had on its community, a hold which might have been partially engendered by the beer reviewed above.
(Joseph Knapp) sent the following comment about tasting notes for (Ballantine Burton Ale)
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Dave,
I read with great interest your review of the above listed Ale. My entire family is a Ballantine family, my dad having worked there for approximately 35 years and myself having worked there for three summers during my prep school days. In fact, ironically, I enjoyed a wonderful Ballantine Ale for dinner tonight.
It was an absolute tragedy in 1971 to see what happened to this magnificent company which at one time was known as "Pride of Newark". In fact, on all of the beer trays that were distributed by the Company back in the '50s and '60s, it was not unusual to see the following acronym "PON". Additionally, in center field at Yankee Stadium the most prominent sign associated with the scoreboard was the Ballantine beer/ale sign. Mel Allen, the late great Yankee announcer, would announce when a home run was hit that "that's a Ballantine blast". Of course it goes without saying that the time that Mel Allen was announcing for the Yankees, he was also enjoying a taste of that great beer during the course of the game. It was often a great mystery to me as a kid why he was becoming so jovial at the end of the game particularly when the Yankees might be losing. Some years later we found out the answer to that.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, during Ballantine Beer/Ale's commercials, we would constantly be reminded that a million classes of Ballantine beer were being consumed in the New York metropolitan area on a daily basis. There's a long story behind this because most of the people that I spoke with back then did not really like the taste of the beer. They only drank it because it was reasonably cheap compared to some of the other New York beers at the time. Budweiser was still in emerging label at this point and had not achieved any degree of dominance in the marketplace. Other beers such as Rheingold enjoyed a wonderful following in the New York market.
I would come to find out in later years, when I had embarked upon my business career, and when the Brewery had been sold to the same mutual fund company that in fact owned the Boston Celtics, that the business would go down the tubes because the sales management staff was not paying attention to the fact that the salesmen were no longer calling on the local pubs and liquor stores with the degree of regularity that a successful sales and marketing program must follow.
Believe it or not here on the East Coast you can now buy a case of Ballantine Ale for approximately $12.00 per case. And, because it is no longer being brewed n Newark (often cited as a great city to brew beer because of the quality and texture of the water) it has a slightly different taste of one that I am greatly enjoying. At this particular point, I'm not sure exactly where its being brewed but I think it might be somewhere out in the Midwest around Milwaukee.
One last story that I thought you might take charge of hearing Dave because of your interest in beers, revolves around the fact that as I indicated earlier in my e-mail message many of my friends were not drinking Ballantine beer when I was going to college because they didn't like the taste. It just so happened, that one summer I was working in the mail room at the brewery and one of my stops was the office of the president of the Corporation. His name was Carl Badenhausen (if I am spelling his name correctly. He was affectionately known to his employees as "Mr. Carl" his brother was Executive Vice President of the Corporation. His secretary was Betty McFarland. (I don't know the relevance of this bit of trivia but I thought I would throw in anyway). In any event, I told my Dad that I was going to advise Mr. Carl that none of my friends were drinking the beer about which I was greatly alarmed because of the taste factor. My Dad suggested that I shouldn't bother doing that because every morning Mr. Carl would have a glass of beer and declare "now that's Ballantine beer". I guess my Dad didn't feel that it would make much of the difference anyway and he didn't want to see me get fired. So, I never told him! End of Story.
Any way Dave, I can't recall ever drinking the Ale that you so greatly enjoying, at least that variety of the ale anyway, I sure have enjoyed my share of Ballantine Ale over the years. There are many many more stories about the brewery, my experience with meeting all of the athletes that worked for the brewery back in the heyday of the 1960s, the Yankees the New York football Giants etc. I want you to know that I greatly enjoyed reading your review of an Ale that was lovenly brewed by my dad back in 1946.
Thank you
Joe Knapp