Maggie's Farm

Easily available here in the Boston area. In my local package store it sells for $6.00 for a six-pack of pints - a great deal. It comes in cans, though, haven't seen it in bottles for a while. When I was in high school it used to be sold in big, virtually indestructible 40's (we called them GIQs) - a different shape from the one pictured above. We used to throw them up in the air as far as we could, and watch them bounce off the pavement. Well, occasionally one would break, the porch lights would begin to come on, and we'd have to hightail it back to the woods. These GIQs seemed to have other mysterious properties. One of my friends swore that if left outside for a proper amount of time (we used to hide our beer under the overhanging bank of a brook) that Ballantine Ale improved, and developed a unique flavor. These aged bottles were highly prized, especially when marijuana came onto the scene. Something definitely changed, taste-wise, when Ballantine was were bought by Falstaff. I've never met a Ballantine Ale drinker from the 1960s - early 1970s who didn't notice, and lament, this change. Ballantine, along with a few others, such as Croft and Dawson, were the only ales in town, and the only relief from the tasteless corporate swill that everyone else drank. They sold it on tap in many wonderful bars of yore such as Cronin's in Harvard Square (the first one I ever had there, in high school, cost a quarter) and Sheehan's in Northampton. Drank it all through college as well, and only stopped when things like Guinness on tap and microbrews became more ubiquitous, and Ballantine Ale became harder to find. And yes, the IPA was sensational - all the brewers I know remember it fondly. Long live Green Death!