ballantinetimeline2

1934 – 2/5 "Ballantine Again Making Beer. The Peter Ballantine & Sons brewery at 57 Freeman St. est. here in 1840, has resumed making ale and beer, employing  150 employees.  The brewery survived Prohibition by making malt products, which will be continued..." according to NY Times.   

Partial year's sales- 275,000 barrels. 

 Sample retail prices- $3 a case for Ballantine Ale (Syracuse), $2.75  in Fitchburg, MA.

First  Ballantine Burton Ale brewed- May  12.

Ales brewed by US breweries said to make up 15-20% of all malt beverage production in the immediate post-Repeal era.

 1935 - First full year of production, total of 650,000  barrels (75% ale). Announces Xmas bonus of 12.5% for salaried employees.

1936 - Brews over 1 million barrels.

Sues Genesee for their use of  "copper colored" beer cans.

1937 Ballantine is the first brewer to adopt Continental Can's 32 oz. spout top can, dubbling it the "Bumper".

October - Ballantine Distributors meeting at Newark Athletic Club - attended by representatives from "more than 500 distributors from fourteen states".  Badenhausen claims it was the largest such meeting in the industry since before Prohibiton.

1937-38 Fiscal year Sept. '37 - Sept. '38 - 1,100,095 bbl., 50% shipped out of state (NLRB) .

1938 - 1,300,000 barrels of beer -76% "light ale". #5 brewer in the US, after Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Schlitz and Jacob Ruppert.  Approximately 650 breweries in the US, A-B at #1 has less than 4% of the total market, with sales of around 1.8m bbl.

1940 – sixth consecutive Xmas bonus announced, 15% of salary including those salaried employees in the Army.

1942 - Brews over 2 million barrels.

1940's - Carl Badenhausen is Chairman of the United Brewers Industrial Foundation  (forerunner of today's Beer Institute- the industry group of the "big" US breweries).

Ballantine one of the pioneering breweries in creating the "six pack"- previously most beer had been sold by the bottle or the case.

1943 – June,  Ballantine buys stock in Christian Feigenspan Brewing Co. (located a block away from P. Ballantine & Sons) from president  Wm. B. Reilly for a total of 50%.  

July- buys more stock to gain control of CFBC. 

Nov. - Despite the claim in July that the “Feigenspan and PON brands will not be disturbed”, P. Ballantine & Sons announces that:

"On November 1, all P.O.N. are to be discontinued.  Thereafter the Feigenspan facilities are to be joined with those of the Ballantine brewery in the production of Ballantine Ale and Beer exclusively."

1944  - FTC charges that the Feigenspan purchase violates the Clayton Act.

1945 - Pabst buys local Hoffman Brewing Co. in Newark, and Anheuser-Busch buys land  near Newark Airport for a future brewery (completed in 1951), which will make Newark the largest "beer making center" in the United States.

Schlitz will buy a Brooklyn brewery in 1948, so P. Ballantine and Sons would enter the 1950's surrounded by facilities of the 3 largest national brewers

1946 - Brews over 3 million barrels.

Second and final batch of Ballantine Burton Ale brewed, March 12.

April 22 Strike, 900 member of  Beer Bottlers and Beer Drivers Union.  John J.Quillan, president, AFL local 843.  3500 brewery workers total affected in Newark.

Law School moves into former Ballantine residence at 37 Washington St. 

1947  BELOW] The four +3 million barrel brewers, Ballantine nearly tied with Pabst and ahead of Anheuser Busch. 4m bbl. was 5% of the US beer market at the time.

1967 - 1800 workers at Ballantine strike.

Total sales of all US-brewed ales falls to 1.3 million barrels (barely over 1% of total malt  beverage production of 106m bbl.). 

Ballantine signs deal to brew Meister Brau Lite  (forerunner of Miller Lite) under license from it's Chicago brewer and distribute it to 18 Eastern seaboard states.  

 Ballantine also  brews the malt liquor Old English 800 , under a similar arrangement with the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company (Portland, OR) for the East Coast market during  the same period, apparently due to the failure of their own late entry into the segment, Triple Crown Malt Liquor.

Sends 880 cases of beer to troops in Vietnam for Christmas.

1967 - Announced $30 million antitrust suit against Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Rheingold, the NJ Brewers Association and the 5 local unions in the (Teamsters) Joint Brewery Workers Executive  Board, claiming they were trying to "...destroy Ballantine’s business and eliminate it as a competitor."  Suit is dropped a few weeks later when it is determined that clause was illegal under anti-trust laws.

1968 - Still #3 beer* in New York, according to its ad agency, SSC&B.  (* Probably meant total brewery barrelage, rather than just Ballantine Beer).

Buys Boston Celtics for $3m

Markets Munich Light Beer ("our lower priced brand") using the dba of "Feigenspan Brewing Company". 

Ballantine has made a new product move with introduction of "Munich Light Lager Beer," produced under the Christian Feigenspan Brewery. The beer is said to be under the direct responsibility and control of Carl Badenhausen, and distribution has begun in their markets from Maine to Florida. The pricing structure is said to be "attractive ... for both retail trade and consumer”.  Christian Feigenspan Brewery is the old "P.O.N." brewery, the "Pride of Newark" in days gone by, before absorption by Ballantine. The new beer is said to be aged in huge wooden tanks, which have been maintained by Ballantine since the Feigenspan take-over.

-- American Brewer

In discussions to purchase "certain assets of Piels" from Associated Brewing Co. 

Company admits to considering offers to sell to "a German firm" and "New England interests", new president and CEO Richard H. Griebel tells NY Times: “I have a troubled company here and normal procedures might not save this company.”

1969 -  April - Stockholders Notice:

"An offer to purchase the outstanding stock of the company may be made prior to May 15, 1969, in which event the annual meeting maybe postponed."

May - "Investors Funding Corporation" (formed in 1946 by the Dansker brothers of Manhattan - Jerome, Norman and Ralph)  buys P. Ballantine & Sons - said to be "owned primarily by seven NJ and NY families” - for an unknown amount.  IFC is primarily a real estate company and will itself go bankrupt by 1975.

Sells Boston Celtics.

Ballantine XXX Ale sales estimated to be down to 500,000 barrels.  Pabst's Old Tankard Ale is #2, with total ale sales of all other brewers combined (besides Ballantine) 250,000 bbl.

1970 #17 Output falls to less than 2m bbl. a year.

May - AP story quotes IFC's president Jerome Dansker:

"Ballantine is making terrific headway.  We’re looking forward to a great company."

Closes 6 company-owned branches, including Red Bank, NJ, and assigns distribution rights to local independent wholesalers.

1971- October- Investors Funding rumored to want to sell P. Ballantine and Sons.  IFC announces later a loss of $3.3 million for the year.

Last full year's barrelage = 2,230,000 / distributed in 40 states (source - 1971 Falstaff Annual Report).

1972 - January - Local 843 agrees to a cut 100 jobs and a 5% pay decrease.

Investors Funding Corporation announces the closing of PBS, effective 3/31/72, less than 2 years after purchase.  Approx. 1600-2000 workers affected.   Wrote the Newark Star-Ledger:

"There were, of course, many other factors involved according to the company, but it was no secret the brewery was losing money when it was sold by Badenhausen and his associates."

Sells the labels of the P. Ballantine and Sons Company to the Falstaff Brewing Corporation of St. Louis for $4 million dollars, and $.50 a barrel for the next 6 years. 

Senator Mathew Rinaldo (R-NJ) asks Miller, Schlitz or Falstaff  to take over and run the Ballantine brewery.

3/15 NJ Governor Cahill calls for FTC investigation of purchase.

Judge refuses to investigate, but prohibits firings until union neg. end.

 Last day March 31, Friday- brief sit-in by employees. Approximately  600 to be re-hired by Falstaff for sales, stock and delivery positions at North Bergen warehouse.

As part of the sale (according to legal documents) Ballantine transferred  to Falstaff "Draught Containers Owned 3/1/72" a total of 121,085 items of cooperage, consisting in 517 barrels, 106,646 half barrels, and 13,922 quarter barrels.

 The first batches of Ballantine products are brewed at Falstaff's Narragansett Brewery in Cranston, RI,  in April

July - Falstaff buys 1.5 million barrel capacity "Burgermeister" brewery in San Francisco (previously owned by Schlitz) from Meister Brau, in part for more capacity to brew Ballantine Ale and Beer for the West Coast market.  (Falstaff's San Jose brewery at the time had a 600k bbl. capacity).

"Ballantine sales also continued to decline at a rate greater than anticipated." --- 1972 Falstaff Annual Report

1973 - Falstaff markets Ballantine XXX Ale, Beer, Dark Beer and Bock Beer, as well as Olde English 800 Malt Liquor and economy brand,  Munich (under the Feigenspan Brewing Co. label).  Ballantine labels list numerous Falstaff brewery cities throughout the decade.

Reputedly, Falstaff changes recipe for Ballatine XXX Ale to a lighter one, only to return to original after complaints.  Reports at the end of the year have Falstaff responding that first batch of Ballantine India Pale Ale would hit the market "soon".

 Falstaff president, Ferd Gutting, announces that Fort Wayne brewery has undergone expansion to permit the brewing of Ballantine Ale so that "...the large eastern market for ale can be served more efficiently and economically...", in year end statement.

1974 - Falstaff sales of all Ballantine brands is 1,407,000 bbl.

Fastaff closes San Fransisco brewery and announced that Ballantine Ale will be brewed by General Brewing Co., at their breweries in SF and Vancouver, WA. for the West Coast markets.   Falstaff brands have 1.1% of the California market. 

 1975- Sales of all Ballantine brands drop below 1 million (for the first time since the mid-1930s) to 974,774 barrels.

Falstaff bought by S&P Corporation (owner of General Brewing), headed by Paul Kalmanovitz.  S&P would eventually also buy the Pearl Brewing Co. in 1978, and, finally, Pabst in 1985.  Ballantine Beer would eventually be brewed by both Pearl and General, and labeled as such.

Kalmanovitz closes North Bergen distribution center which serviced NY-NJ metro area and "which accounted for a very significant percentage of all Ballantine sales".  By the time of closing, it employed only 140 former Ballantine workers, less than a quarter of the original 600 jobs promised by Falstaff.

Falstaff assigns distributors L. Fatato (Brooklyn) and L. A. Piccirillo (Newark) to cover the NYC-NJ region's 15,000-17,000 retailers previously served out of the Ballantine brewery and, later, the North Bergen branch.

1976  - Sales of all Ballantine brands fall to 582,964 bbl., less than half of 1974's barrelage.

Total ale production in US falls below 1 million barrels for the first time ever, 0.7% of US malt beverages.  Ballantine XXX Ale and Carling Red Cap Ale are the best known nationally distributed ales.

In May Falstaff was sued by Verein Muenchener Brauerein, e.V., a German trade association, for certification mark infringement and unfair trade practices with respect to Falstaff's sale of Munich Beer.

1977 - Sales of all Falstaff-brewed Ballantine products  (Beer, Ale, IPA and Munich) fall to 519,000 bbl., about 12% of peak years in Newark.

1978 - Falstaff sued by "Balco" (successor company to Investor Funding) over unpaid royalties, resulting in a landmark legal decision- Balco v. Falstaff

In March the District Court for the District of Columbia entered a permanent injunction against Falstaff which prohibits the company from marketing beer hereafter under the name "Munich."

 1970's - Falstaff briefly brews and markets Ballantine Cream Ale during the era's "cream ale" popularity (possibly only in test market?), along with Pearl Cream Ale and Narragansett Cream Ale.

1980 - Short-lived Ballantine Brewers Gold Ale brewed by Falstaff, marketed as a "Premium Ale".  Rumored to be a blend of XXX and India Pale ales.