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Historic Beer Birthday: John Holme Ballantine

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Today is the birthday of John Holme Ballantine (February 28, 1834-April 27, 1895). He was the second of three sons of Peter Ballantine, who founded P. Ballantine & Sons. In 1857, he brought on his three sons as partners. John Holme served as president of the family brewery from 1883 until his death in 1895.

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This is John Holme’s obituary from the Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey:

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And here’s a history of the Ballantine brewery from “A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860,” by John Leander Bishop, Edwin Troxell Freedley, Edward Young, published in 1868:

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Beer Birthday: John Holl

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Today is the 43rd birthday of John Holl, a journalist who spent the early part of his career working the crime and politics beat at various newspapers. Now, he’s writing almost exclusively about beer from his home in northern New Jersey. He’s the editor again All About Beer Magazine and has worked for most of the trade publications in some capacity over the years. He’s also written a few books including the American Craft Beer Cookbook and the Craft Brewery Cookbook. In recent years he’s done a number of podcasts including Drink Beer, Think Beer, Steal This Beer, and The BYO Nano Podcast. In 2019 he founded the site Beer Edge with Andy Crouch and more recently they bought All About Beer magazine. He also works as a contributing editor at Wine Enthusiast Magazine. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know John during some travel over the last few years, from Denver to Boston, Brussels, even in Chile. He’s been a great addition to the fraternity of beer writers. Join me in wishing John a very happy birthday.

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After the first Beer Bloggers Conference, having lunch at Euclid Hall in Denver, before flying home.
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A few years ago in Chile, judging at the Copa Cervezas de America 2011 (John’s on the right in the back row).
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Visiting Maltexco, also in Chile (this time, John’s on the left).
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At a lunch at Euclid Hall in Denver; John, me, Greg Koch and Jacob McKean, Stone Brewing’s former blogger, and now owner of Modern Times.
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With Stephen Beaumont and Stan Hieronymous, taking a pizza from Sandlot Brewing to Great Divide during GABF a few years ago.
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In Boston last year at Harpoon Brewery after John missed his flight, after forgetting his keys, which ultimately made for a great afternoon.
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A portrait of the beer writer as a young man.

Historic Beer Birthday: Robert F. Ballantine

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Today is the birthday of Robert Francis Ballantine (January 3, 1836-December 9 or 10, 1905). He was born in New Jersey, and was the son of Peter Ballantine, who founded the Patterson & Ballantine Brewing Company in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey. Peter Ballantine had three sons, and they joined him in the business in 1857, which is when the name was changed to the P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company. In 1883, when his father died, Robert became president of the brewery, outliving both his brothers and continuing to run the family business until his own death in 1905.

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This short biography of Robert Ballantine is from “New Jersey History,” published in 1909:

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And this lengthier obituary is from the Brewers Journal:

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And here’s a history of the Ballantine brewery from “A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860,” by John Leander Bishop, Edwin Troxell Freedley, Edward Young, published in 1868:

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Historic Beer Birthday: Peter Hood Ballantine

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Today is the birthday of Peter Hood Ballantine (December 18, 1831-September 16, 1882). He was the son of Peter Ballantine, who founded the Patterson & Ballantine Brewing Company in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey, which is better known by its later name, the P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company. Peter Hood helped run the business with his father and brothers until his death in 1882.

Given that he was the eldest son, there’s very little information about him, and I couldn’t find an image of him, while there are plenty of his brothers, Robert and John. So I don’t know what his role was within the family brewery, although the fact that he died the year before his father did suggests he had a lesser role and never had the opportunity to do more on his own.

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This is from “America’s Successful Men of Affairs: The United States at Large,” published in 1896, and although it’s primarily about Peter Hood’s father, he is mentioned in this account.

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Historic Beer Birthday: William Peter Jr.

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Today is the birthday of William Peter Jr. (December 11, 1860-January 7, 1937). His father, William Peter Sr., founded the William Peter Brewing Company of Union City, New Jersey. When the brewery was incorporated in 1890, Junior was thirty. He became a shareholder and was also vice-president at that time. Presumably, when his father died in 1918, William Peter Jr. became president and soldiered on until his own death in 1937. After that, the brewery remained in business until 1949, when it was sold to George Ehret and renamed the George Ehret Brewery, but only remained open for one more year, closing for good in 1950. Unfortunately, I can’t find very much information about William Peter Jr. directly, not even a portrait.

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William Peter Jr. with his father and one of his three wives, taken in 1910.
Here’s a biography of William Peter Jr. from “Schlegel’s American Families of German Ancestry,” by Carl Schlegel:

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The brewery workers with William Peter in the center of the first row, with (I think) his son to the right (his left).

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Historic Beer Birthday: Christian William Feigenspan

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Today is the birthday of Christian William Feigenspan (December 7, 1876-February 7, 1939). His father, Christian Benjamin Feigenspan, was born in Thuringia, Germany but moved his family to New Jersey and founded the C. Feigenspan Brewing Company of Newark in 1875, though at least one source says 1868. When his father died in 1899, Christian William took over management of the brewery, which remained in business through prohibition, but was bought by Ballantine in 1943. He was also “president of Feigenspan Brewing Company, president of Federal Trust Company, and president of the United States Brewers’ Association.”

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Here’s a short biography from Find-a-Grave:

Businessman. He took over Newark, New Jersey’s Feigenspan Brewery Company, founded by his father in 1868, when his father died in 1899. He then transformed the company into one of the best known breweries up until and after prohibition. Today it’s labels are the among the most sought after by collectors.

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Here’s another biography from “Legendary Locals of Rumson,” written by Roberta H. Van Anda:

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And here’s his obituary from his local newspaper:

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Scranton Media Family Buys Flying Fish

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I somehow missed this news, which seems to have come out without too much fanfare a few days ago. Maybe we’re becoming desensitized to brewery M&A? Certainly Twitter wasn’t abuzz with the news. Flying Fish Brewing, one of New Jersey’s earliest small brewers, was bought by the Lynett and Haggerty families, who own Times-Shamrock Communications. They own a dozen newspapers and eleven radio stations. On April 8, they announced that they’d bought a controlling interest in the Somerdale, New Jersey brewery, though the deal was quietly done a month earlier, on March 11.

Flying Fish was founded in 1995 by Gene Muller. They started in Cherry Hill, but moved to larger quarters in Sommerville four years ago.

According to the Scranton Times-Tribune (one of the papers owned by the family), this is how it went down.

The family’s expertise in marketing, events and promotions will help the brewery continue to grow and expand its footprint, said Bobby Lynett, manager of L&H Brewing Partners, the entity that now holds a majority interest in Flying Fish. They declined to disclose the cost of their acquisition.

“Flying Fish is a nice brewery with good people and a great product,” said Mr. Lynett, a publisher of The Times-Tribune. “We want to help it grow.”

Flying Fish currently employs 33 people who produce about 24,000 barrels of beer each year.

Gene Muller, founder of Flying Fish, said he began looking for new partners when some initial investors began to cash out on their investment in the company. He joked that the Scranton family emerged as a good fit “because they are Irish.”

Mr. Muller, 61, believes Flying Fish will benefit from events and other business interests of the Lynett-Haggerty families, whom he refers to as “The Scranton Guys.”

“There are obvious synergies,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to inject some enthusiasm into the company and take care of our initial investors. The Scranton Guys are part of a 100-year-old company. They understand the long-term horizon.”

The capital for L&H Brewing Partners came from some individual family members and Elk Lake Capital, set up by the family to invest in non-media companies to add diversity to the family’s holdings beyond Times-Shamrock’s media holdings of newspapers, radio stations and outdoor advertising. Elk Lake already owns a land-surveying company and water-testing company.

Toasting the Class of '96: Greg Koch, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski, Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller & Sam CalagioneAt a Philly Beer Week event celebrating the Class of '96: Greg Koch, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski, Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller & Sam Calagione.

Class Action Suit Alleges ABI Watering Down Bud & Michelob

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Just when you think things can’t get any stranger, beer drinkers in three states — California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — have filed a class action suit against Anheuser-Busch InBev. The L.A. Times is reporting in Beer drinkers accuse Anheuser-Busch of watering down brews, that the lawsuit alleges the following:

Ten Anheuser-Busch products were named in the lawsuits: Budweiser, Michelob, Michelob Ultra, Bud Ice, Bud Light Platinum, Hurricane High Gravity Lager, King Cobra, Busch Ice, Natural Ice and Bud Light Lime.

Former employees at the company’s 13 breweries — including some in high-level positions — are cooperating with the plaintiffs, said San Rafael, Calif., lawyer Josh Boxer, the lead attorney in the case.

“Our information comes from former employees at Anheuser-Busch, who have informed us that as a matter of corporate practice, all of their products [mentioned in the lawsuit] are watered down,” Boxer said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s a simple cost-saving measure, and it’s very significant.”

The excess water is added just before bottling and cuts the stated alcohol content by 3% to 8%, he said.

ABI, naturally, is calling the lawsuit “groundless,” but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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Cartoon by Tony Husband.

UPDATE: NBC News is also now reporting this story, in Budweiser waters down its beer, lawsuit alleges. Apparently, Bloomberg broke the story earlier today, and also the AP, the BBC and Business Day have all weighed in.

UPDATE 2: I’ve seen a lot of commentary on this story in the interwebs suggesting that since there appears to be no test results from the Plaintiffs in this case that perhaps they are simply confusing high-gravity brewing with actively lowering the final alcohol percentage, which is a reasonable assumption. But there may be another possibility. Thanks to Stan at Appellation Beer for pointing out a post from last October by Gary Spedding at his Alcohol Beverage Testing News. I’ve known Gary for a number of years. He runs a lab in Kentucky called Brewing and Distilling Analytical Services, LLC and also most years presents an orientation exercise for GABF judges the day before we start each year. It’s sort of a continuing education component of the judging experience. His presentations are always interesting and informative and, needless to say, Spedding’s expertise is unassailable.

Last October, he posted Gaining its airs and losing its graces — a Tale of Two Buds, which he wrote in response to a popular article last fall from Bloomberg Business Week entitled The Plot to Destroy America’s Beer. In addressing the suggestion in the article that Budweiser beer had changed after InBev took control of Anheuser-Busch, noted the following experiences he’d had with the beer in recent months.

Bud has been our control beer in our laboratory … for calibrating our alcohol instruments Bud goes in after calibration to see hopefully 5.00% abv. pretty much on the nose. Not so recently. Now as low as 4.94% after slipping from 4.98% earlier in the year. Losing it graces by higher airs it may be toppling from its top spot and is no longer our control beer of choice. But it is changing. A tale of two Buds (early and late) would reveal much more. Over the years the international bitterness content has declined from about 12 in the late 90’s to 7-8 today — another parameter to watch.

That original post also included a discussion of increasing oxygen levels, but Spedding had a lengthy discussion with Paul Cobet, who’s the Director of the Technical Center for ABI in St. Louis. The oxygen question is apparently now less of a concern and appears to be instrument-driven, and Gary updated that with a newer post, Regaining its Graces — Driving Oxygen Down — Good for Budweiser. So while the plaintiffs may not have tested the beer — still odd, admittedly — there is apparently some reason to think their case may hold water after all.

New Jersey Beer

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Today in 1787, New Jersey became the 3rd state.

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New Jersey Breweries

New Jersey Brewery Guides

Guild: Garden State Craft Brewers Guild

State Agency: New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control

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  • Capital: Trenton
  • Largest Cities: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Edison Township
  • Population: 8,414,350; 9th
  • Area: 8722 sq.mi., 47th
  • Nickname: Garden State
  • Statehood: 3rd, December 18, 1787

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  • Alcohol Legalized: December 5, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 20
  • Rank: 27th
  • Beer Production: 4,775,387
  • Production Rank: 11th
  • Beer Per Capita: 17 Gallons

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Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 48.1%
  • Cans: 39.4%
  • Kegs: 12.1%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.12
  • Per Case: $0.27
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $3.72
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $3.72

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $891,637,336
  • Direct Impact: $2,485,802,018
  • Supplier Impact: $1,719,620,711
  • Induced Economic Impact: $2,086,724,154
  • Total Impact: $6,292,146,882

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: Varies by municipality. Most municipalities have a last call of 2 a.m. Larger cities such as Newark, Hoboken, and Jersey City set their closing time at 3 a.m. Atlantic City and Brigantine serves 24 hours. Some dry towns in the southern part of the state, including Ocean City.
    Off Premises: 9 a.m.-10 p.m., unless bar/restaurant has license to permit Beer/Wine off-premises, then hours must be the same as on-premises hours
  • Grocery Store Sales: Rarely
  • Notes: Some dry communities in historically Methodist and Quaker communities in the southern part of the state.

    Though there is not a ban on selling alcoholic beverages at grocery stores, New Jersey limits each chain to two licenses, so except for a few exceptions, most supermarkets/convenience stores/gas stations/pharmacies do not sell alcoholic beverages. In addition, liquor sales are only permitted in a separate department or attached sister store. Bars are allowed to off-sale packaged goods.

    With the exception of Jersey City and Newark, all municipalities MUST allow off-sales of beer and wine at any time on-sales are permitted. However, since alcoholic beverages are generally only found in package stores, this right is rarely exercised. Alcoholic beverages by the drink as well as off-sales of beer and wine are permitted 24 hours a day in Atlantic City and Brigantine.

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Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.