Ballantine Burton Ale
 

Review Date 5/28/2000 By John Staradumsky

  Style: English Barleywine   Brewery: Ballantine   Country: USA   State: New Jersey   $ Per OZ: N/A   ABV: N/A

Brewed by P. Ballantine & Sons, Newark, N.J. Not intended for commercial sale, this bottle brewed exclusively for L.M. Cannon on May 12 1934, bottled December of 1941. Ballantine Burton was brewed and aged at the brewery in several batches over the years, with the intent being to distribute it as gifts to family friends and sales contacts.

It's not everyday you drink a beer that's old enough to collect Social Security. Frankly, I wasn't expecting much from this beer. I had heard a lot of doubts about how good it could be after all this time. True, many beers will improve with age, but this one had not exactly been stored under optimal aging conditions. When I popped the cap, a small sigh of CO2 escaped, almost as if the beer was giving up the ghost. I poured half of the 7oz. of beer into two glasses, one for myself and one for a friend. The beer poured to a beautiful ruby color, the bottom of the bottle was covered with a sludge of yeast and protein sediment. It pretty much stayed there though, and didn't end up in the beer. The nose was quite sherry like and vinous. Then the first sip. Not surprisingly, a lot of oxidation. Not very beery tasting. But the finish was VERY interesting. Reminiscent of Scotch, hinting at vanilla, a very high octane burn, perhaps 10% or so alcohol seemed to be present.

I'm sure this beer tastes nothing like it did when it was first released. It's not something you'd spend an evening sipping. Still, it's interesting to drink a piece of history, a beer that was brewed the year after prohibition was repealed, sat in oak through most of the depression and the start of World War II, was bottled the month Pearl Harbor was bombed, sat in someone's house for God knows how long, was sold at an auction in a box of assorted junk, was auctioned on E-Bay, survived the Postal Service, and was drunk 65 years after being brewed.

Try it, if you can find it.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??