Anchor Our Special Ale (2001 and earlier)

Formerly brewed at Anchor Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Francisco, California USA

Very good beer that reminds me of their porter but is exceptional. A red-tinged head. Very tasty.

Sampled at a 2005 Christmas and Winter beer tasting at Delilah’s, Chicago, IL. 2000 vintage. Clear dark brown ale having no discernable head and carbonation. Slight spice aroma. Medium bodied that starts with spicy, toffee, and prune flavors. Finishes with light sweet malt aftertaste. This is a good drinkable winter brew.

1991: The aroma is tree bark, cinnamon, and ginger. Pretty dark aroma. The beer pours to a beige head with excellent lacing. The body is a hazy molasses color. The flavor is woodsy and cinnamon and ginger. The palate is definitely dry. Feels medium-full and still pretty slick.
1992: The beer is darker than the 91. Thick creamy off-white head. The aroma is similar but more tart. The flavor has a light chocolateyness to it. Minutely better than 1991.
1993: Same aroma as 1991. Flavor is a merge between 1991 and 1992. As woodsy as the 1991.
1994: Woodsy and piney like the wood, not the needle.
1995: Tastes pretty much exactly like the 94.
1996: Slightly sweeter than the 1995.
1997: The aroma has lots of wood and hints of grape soda. Gingerbread notes. The appearance is a deep brown body with a nice tan head. The flavor starts off a little chocolatey and morphs into a woodsy spiced cinnamon. The palate is dry, woody, and zingy. This vintage is pretty good.
1998: Lighter colored body than the 1997. The head is thinner and less prominent. The aroma doesn’t have the grape soda quality like the 1997. This one has less wood and spice as well in the flavor. More balanced, but also not as exciting. Still it is quite good.
1999: Pours to a thick tan colored head that disapates to a thinner but lasting head. The body is a darker mahogany. The aroma is full of gingerbread and cinnamon apples with woods. The flavor is lighter and more toasty than previous vintages. Perhaps this is one of the first that isn’t oxidized as much. More noticeable chocolates and ginger.
2000: Pours a very dark brown body with a few small chunks in the bottom of the glass. A thick and creamy tan head. The aroma is strongly cinnamon apples, dry and woody. The flavor is dry charred black patent malt, plums, dry cinnamon bark. Quite a different flavor than the other ones but still quite decent. Dry roasty palate. I like this one quite a bit.
2001: Quite chocolatey. More spice and less char than 2000. More ginger.

Vintages 91-93 sampled thanks to Jason 91 was base rating then change notes added next to vintage: Pours a almost rusty mahogony brown w/ a thick tan head and a nice lacing. Large aroma big and malty w/ ginger and cinamon this smells a touch stale but ots of carmel. Palate is well coated a touch thin possibly with age. Spicy herb flavor definate ginger and a good amount of carmel, light but solid. An enjoyable beer although I’d prefer it bigger & thicker for a winter. 92: aroma picked up a bit more of a vegetable type smell still a bit stale but not as much. A little more cinamon in the fliver and a touch more spice in the swallow. 93: Stale piece is fades mostly away head is much more solid and pretty. Flavor is about the same. 94: Smells fresher than previous a nice clean aroma now. More carbonationa and a much thicker head and lace. has more ginger than in the past. 95: slightly more red in the color biggest head yet. Much more mild aroma than the past editions. Has more spice definatly more cinamon than the others and hints of other vegetable flavors. 96: theres a new spice in this one I can’t pick out and less ginger than in the previous 2 years. Scent is lighter as well. Palate is a touch thinner. 97: had a spice i just disliked but couldn’t place it, didn’t even want to drink it. 98: beers are getting prettier with recency. This might be my fav vintage yet. 99: seems to be a lighter aroma and flavor, very blah. 2000: carbonation and head improved dramatically. aroma is back w/ an odd spice definate cinnamon & nutmeg and then maybe ginger or something but it comes through a bit odd. Palate retained more carbonation and the flavor resembled the aroma very closely w/ the odd gingery taste again turning me off a bit theres even a charred taste in the finish.. I didn’t really like this vintage. 2001: fullest thickest best coated head so far. alcohol notes come through slightly in the aroma more chocolates, a more subdued spice palate still soem nutmeg and allspice.

2000 vintage magnum, sampled at the Yeha. Poured brown with a creamy white head. Thin aroma of cinnamon and caramel. Taste is molasses, caramel, with some light spiciness. Dry finish. Overall the flavor seems unusally thin; perhaps this hasn’t held up well.

Sample taste at <a href=http://www.chibeer.org>Chicago Beer Society vertical tasting, Dec. 1. This total rating is a general huzzah for the whole stack, since no gripe I may have could possibly dissuade you from wanting to have your own vertical of as many vintages as possible:<ul><li>2001 More of a cherry smell. This one comes up with a tough of ginger. This particular bottle, though, is just skating at the edge of drinkability. <li>2000 A nice, darker color than the 2001 Brown in color, with maltiness that tends to the Pale Ale category. Has the complimenting fruitiness of an English pale ale. <li>1999 Darker still in color, Has a continued fruitiness from aging. This one has begun to lose its spiciness. Malts are a deeper brown ale style; in fact, this one comes across with an impression of an English nut-brown ale. <li>1998 Settled to the same brown color as the 1999. Nice impressions of leather and pipe tobacco, and a touch of chocolate. Also has some sourness that comes in nicely. <li>1997 Darker still than the more recent beers. My first note is of chocolate covered cherries and the smoothness of book leather. <li>1996 This particular sample has gone flat. It’s still got a nice chocolaty component. But that can’t get around it being flat, and just a bit vinegary. We only opened one bottle, so I’m not sure if it was just one bad one. <li>1995 After the flat ’96, we got back to a nice fruity and well-balanced holiday beer. I’m again reminded how well these 5.5% beers have kept. This vintage brings the malts back to the forefront. <li>1994 A bit of cherry and black currants in the smell, otherwise only borderline interesting. Does put an interesting woody hop component. <li>1993 Got just a taste. It comes in a little bit watery. May be a touch of smokiness. <li>1992 Slight cherry overtones. Taste is just a touch volatile. This is pretty well-aged; for something that’s been in the bottle so long, it’s held up very well. <li>1991 Light mélange of spice flavors over malts. A noticeable English hops profile remains to be found. Again, a well cared for beer. <li>1990 This one holds up pretty well, too, even if it only offers a vague impression of brown malts. Still some spices here, but somewhat “emptied” of their kick.</ul>

Dark with off-white golden head. Very tasty with hints of ginger and cinammon. Aroma was pleasant. Great Beer, especially for the right atmosphere. Definitely fits the season.

Holy cow, a 1982 bottle of OSA. I figured I would finally rate a brew older than 2001...but 1982? Shizz, I think the first OSA I ever drank was 1984, fresh while living in the central valley.

The brew poured a hazed light amber hue with a lot of strange looking floaties and zip for head or lace. The aroma was very oxidized, cardboard and musty. Also noticed some very overripened fruit and a vinous almost sherry like character. The flavor was very much like the nose, massive liquor notes with a papery oxidized overtone. Some spice and fig show towards the very end. Any hop character has long left this bottle. The mouthfeel was quite nice really, lush and warming...yep sherry like there as well. Well, it is not often you get a chance to try something like this, so thanks to brought this.