A Myth Confirmed – Ballantine Burton Ale

One of the many great things about my gig as the “Atlantic Highlands Beer Man” is the feedback that my column often generates. Some is amusing, some is encouraging and some is downright fascinating. This past weekend’s experience clearly falls in the latter category and that is why I have chosen to share it with you.

Some weeks ago I received an e-mail from a reader who was previously employed by the Ballantine Brewery in Newark, New Jersey. He offered to mail me a label that he had saved for over forty years from a bottle of Ballantine Burton Ale. I emailed him back with my contact info and waited. This past Saturday morning I received a telephone call, it seems the Gentleman (who has asked to remain anonymous) informed me that he actually lives on the next block and would like to drop by with the label. I said “sure I’ll see you in a few minutes”. My guest arrived bearing the label, some typed background information on the Burton Ale and some memorabilia from his days as an employee at the Newark Brewery. We chatted for quite some time about beer and brewing and were it not for a planned get-together with some of my high school pals (Wayne Hills 1978) we would likely have chatted for hours.

By way of background, the Ballantine Brewery, was originally built in 1840, and was a Newark landmark. By 1950 the brand was the third most popular brand in the nation and the only Ale brewer in the top 10. Only Schlitz and Budweiser were bigger. Ballantine Ale was also the official beer of the New York Yankees. Yankee home runs were referred to as Ballantine Blasts by the announcers. Alas, consolidation in the industry and competition took their toll and by 1960 the brand had dropped to number 6 in the nation. To keep up changes were made to the recipe and the brewery was modernized and expanded but the brewer continued to lose money. In 1965 the Badenhausen Family sold the brewery to a group of investors that had no prior brewing experience. In three short years, despite looting the pension fund, the investors were forced to sell the brand and its distribution network to Falstaff. Shortly thereafter Ballantine brewing filed for bankruptcy and disappeared. Over the intervening years the brand has changed hands many times and is now being brewed by Pabst brewing. It is here where I leave-off and the story of Ballantine Burton ale Begins:


“I was a quality control laboratory employee at the Peter Ballantine Brewery from 1953 to
1966. The brewery closed, I believe in the fall of 1970. Some of this information is
anecdotal. The Burton ale was a long time product and by the time I started my
employment all kinds of legends about it and it’s origins at Ballantine had developed.

Anecdote: Burton Ale was brewed to be used for what was called, “Stock Ale”. In the taverns before Repeal there was on the bar a small barrel (about a gallon) with a spigot. It contained heavy, flat, ale that could be added, for a small fee of course, to a glass of draught beer as a flavor enhancer. For this purpose the master brewer from the Burton on Trent brewery in the, UK was brought to Newark to brew up he ale according to the English formula and brew house conditions. The market for Stock Ale did not materialize and the ale was put up in small storage or aging tanks in the brewery.

Fact: Not being a sales product it became a specialty ale that was bottled once per year in the late fall for distribution as a Christmas present to people f note. The ale was bottled with a special Yule label, packed in a specially lithographed case and distributed to the lucky ones on the list,

The bottling of the ale was a very carefully controlled operation. Samples would be taken from the aging tanks and evaluated. Sometimes all the ale for the run would come from one tank or several tanks would be blended together to obtain the proper flavor and mouth feel for this product. The tanks holding the ale were sealed by locking the zwickles (sampling faucet). Each tank had its own lock on both middle and bottom zwickels and the hose valve connection on the very bottom had a special screw cap which was also locked. A set of keys for the tanks was kept in the laboratory and the brewery supervisor’s office. When the ale was bottled there were supervisory personnel at any point where product might be “lost.” The same held true for the bottles and all the production was strictly accounted for and kept under lock an key in security areas before shipping. A few cases were also locked away for reference t the next years run.

The storage tanks were laboratory tested every 6 months for lactic acid and gravity. At Ballantine the gravity was measured by degrees Balling using hydrometers. The test determined if a secondary fermentation was occurring in the tank, a sure sign of wild yeast doing its dirty work. The lactic acid test was to see if bacteria were infecting the tank and they would produce lactic acid as a by-product. The brew master and technical director would also evaluate each tank for appearance, flavor and aroma.

It can now be told that when the brewers would set up a holiday buffet out in the brewery the price of admission for their laboratory friends was very often a quart sample jar of Burton Ale “zwickled’ from one of the tanks.

When the brewery went out of business, I have it on good authority that the Burton Ale on hand was inventoried by BATF for tax purposes and the bottom valves opened to run the contents to the sewer.

A sad end to a unique product…”
There is always some debate as to whether a brew tastes like it used to. Not being much of a drinker at the age of 5 (when the Badenhausen’s sold the brand) I have no recollection of the “Old Ballantine” but I still enjoy a “New Ballantine” every so often. My experience this past weekend has inspired me to pick up a six pack of Ballantine and add in a shot or two of some well aged “Stock Ale:” It should be interesting to taste what I may have missed by not being on the Badenhausen’s “A list” back in 1963.