Ballantine's was OK throughout the original and Falstaff eras*, then became pretty much undrinkable when Pabst got their inept mitts on it in 1985. Their XXX Ale has a measly 72% score on BeerAdvocate.
*I was too young to try the original, but understand that it was virtually unchanged from when Falstaff bought it in 1972. My first experience with it was in the mid/late 70s.
Who remembers Mel Brooks doing the 2000 year old Brewmaster commercials for Ballantine beer on the radio??? I simply cannot find any references to it (or recordings) anywhere - if anyone has links to an audio clip, I'd appreciate it)...BTW...speaking of Ballantine being the Beer of the Yankees, it's rumored that Mel Allen was canned by management for sampling too much of Balantine's wares on the air...I KNOW Red Barber was canned for publically remarking (on the radio) about the paltry turjnout of fans (somewhere in the vicinity of 3K) at a Yankee home game during the Yankees Dark Ages, (post '64 and the Johnny Keene managerial days)
Dad only drank Schafer and Reingold Beer......and lots of it ! Wrecked a few cars in his day. I used to go with him to AA meetings held in the basement of a Jamaica (Queens) school.
"Bally Ale" was known in some teenage circles as "green death," probably because it came in a green bottle and had a distinctive, somewhat skunky taste.
The first sip of beer I ever tasted was from an opened quart bottle of Ballantine Beer stowed by a friend's dad in their refrigerator. I must say it tasted pretty good. Later in life, and for awhile, my favorite brew was Ballantine's IPA (India Pale Ale), which had a pleasantly bitter and hoppy flavor. And much later, I had the pleasure of visiting and touring their brewery in the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark NJ.
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*I was too young to try the original, but understand that it was virtually unchanged from when Falstaff bought it in 1972. My first experience with it was in the mid/late 70s.
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