Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle. Pours golden amber white head. Nose and taste of sugar cone, light perfume hop, orange peel, grapefruit , resin and caramel malt. Medium body.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Whole Foods Bowery, NYC 12 ounce ($3): Pours light amber with a white head. Aroma is hops. They are somewhat nondescript as they are not particularly citrusy, resinous, or piny. Taste is malty with a nice bitter undertone. This isn’t bad. It probably is nothing like the original Ballantine IPA (which I assume was more like an English ESB), but hey, at least they are trying.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Pours Amber into a shaker. White head with medium retention recedes to mottle surface. Resin aromas. Soft with sour caramel upfront turning to resin in the lasting finish.
CLW (16859) reviewed Ballantine India Pale Ale from Ballantine Beer 11 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Purchased a bottle from Julio’s Liquors for $7.99 before the Wild Six Discount. Lasting head on a copper color liquid. Aroma is mild citrus floral and mild pine hops and hints at being more sweet then it tastes.
The flavor has a toasted malt and pale grain base that helps balance the deep lingering pine and floral hop punch. Damn! This is one of the most balanced IPA’s I’ve sampled in a long while. The bitterness has a deep pine that lingers but the mild sweet, pale malt really makes it refreshing. I never had the original and I haven’t looked up who actually owns the Pabst Brewing Company but this is solid. Truly if this is anything like it was 50 years ago it would have been the Heady Topper of its day. A pleasure to drink but best grabbed fresh because I could see this turning to sweet.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Look, I could rate this straight up, but this one is a bit nostalgic. I remember drinking this some thirty plus years ago when India Pale ales were scant to find. It was uniquely different back then and undoubtably the first big hop brew I ever experienced. So rating this new version is a bit of a challenge. I want to do the memory of my youth justice, but I need to be truthful with what sits in front of me today. This brew is amber orange with a nice creamy beige head that leaves a clinging lace. Aroma is pure grapefruit hops. Flavor is toasted grain with more grapefruit hops and rich caramel malt. Bitter hop finish and aftertaste. As I remember, the older version was a bit more subtle. This new version is more hop forward and complex. All in all, I am glad to have Ballantine IPA back! , .
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from Bert’s Pours a crystal clear deep golden color with a huge frothy off white head that slowly dissipates to lots of stickies on the sides. Aromas of caramel and toffee with just a hint of fruit, mineral and earthy resin. The flavor is sweet up front with sweet bread and a hint of caramel. Light fruitiness with a touch of alcohol and a lingering earthy almost woody hop flavor. Medium body and level of carbonation. Decent enough brew, feels very English inspired, but a bit more balanced than the style has morphed into over the last few years.
Repulsive.
Travlr (30173) reviewed Ballantine XXX Ale from Ballantine Beer 11 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 2 | Flavor - 2 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 1
Boy, does this one bring back childhood memories. The drinking age in New York was 18, I could get served at age 13, Son of Sam was stalking the city, and this was about the only thing we had too cool us off - especially when the big power failure hit. Don’t know where I’d find it these days.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5
Reviewed from notes. More Miller brews, here we go.
Various times this was poured into a pint glass and other times it was poured into a pilsener and honestly, there really wasn’t much difference.
The appearance was a somewhat hazy yellow/orange color with a half finger’s worth of foamy white head that left a little bit of lacing.
The smell was dried and sweetened corn with a little grassiness about it.
The taste was mainly sweet through the corn. There was a decent sweet corn aftertaste with a mild dry sweet to bitter finish.
On the palate, it sat pretty light and showed a fair sessionable quality about it. The carbonation was fairly light but still showed some harshness over the mouth and tongue.
Overall, this isn’t bad if ya don’t pound it. Drink don’t sip and but pound the whole six pack.
Beerfest5 (1972) reviewed Ballantine XXX Ale from Ballantine Beer 11 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 2 | Flavor - 2 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 2.5
Almost undrinkable. Skunk like you wouldn’t believe. Soapy flavor and terrible off taste in the end. Found an old bottle in an attic that I was re-doing and decided to try it out, not that bottle of course, a new one from the package store, but in the end I don’t think it mattered.