Anchor Our Special Ale (2001 and earlier)

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

Spicy ginger atop a sweet caramel and dark fruit aroma. Opaque amber-brown with strong and lasting white head. Sweet plum pudding - dark fruits, hints of alcohol, ginger, cinnamon perhaps. Rather different and very enjoyable. Body is medium. Bottle (1999). Mr. Pickwick’s at Stowe (Fall 2003).

2000 vintage. What a find; found this in a small liquor store with NOTHING else worth buying, on the sale shelf for 75 cents. Poured a mahogany color, with a slight tan head and lacing. Smelled like a southern spice cake. The spruce flavor was less present than the 2002 I recently had. A little drier and more complex.

1997 Vintage- Still very carbonated, in great shape which is somewhat suprising. Nice dark body, with a thin tan head. Sweet toffee, spice aroma. Taste seems to be pretty low-key and subtle. Ginger, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and malt, with slithgt notice of alcohol.

2001 on tap at Summits in Cumming, GA, 8/14/04: Pours a clear dark brown with a thin off-white ring of head. This seems a touch watery as it has lost a lot of its carbonation. Aroma is mildly malty and spiced, but overall subdued. Body starts lightly sweet and sugary with some caramel, a touch of roasted malts, and a nicely aged, smooth spiced balance. Some black pepper, musk, cinnamon and ginger seem to round it out. Overall I’d say apart from the carbonation issue, this seems to have aged well.

Vintage 2001. Dark brown in colour. Aroma was spicy, earthy, ginger and nutmeg, bready malt. Flavour of earth, wood, spices, malty, licorice, ginger. Medium body and carbonation. Finishes with a mild bitterness, long and slightly dry.

1998 Bottle @ RBSG 04’ Grand Tasting
Thick hazy with excellent head/lacing. The aroma is mild with some aged fruit & earthy sweetness. The flavor is smooth, mild. The nice uniqueness of these doesn’t really come through as much as the fresh ones do.

3 vintages tasted from Double Magnum bottles at the 2004 Crescent Moon Vintage Beer Tasting. When you get these side-by-side you really can see an amazing diversity. 1995: Spruce! Such a strong spruce flavor that you might be tempted to clean your kitchen floor with this. Very tart and spicy. I give it an overall 4.1 just for the uniqueness. 1998: Big dark brown head. Not nearly as high a spruce content, or am I just tasting leftover spruce from 1995? Lacks the body of the 1995, but has lots of chocolate. Delicious, and gets a 4.3. 1999: Dark brown in color. Good head, but does not last. Very astringent it was so tart. I just don’t get the message the spices are trying to tell in this one. The drunken beer novices loved this one. I give it my disappointment score of 3.5. Thanks Bill, for sharing these prizes! UPDATE 8/4/7: Vintage 1998 in the bottle at the 2007 Baburek backyard vintage beer tasting. Thanks to bditty187 for the beer. Acetone aroma with prunes. Dark amber with a thin white head. This has lost it’s oomph. There’e some chocolate, but tartness is the only thing in the finish. Big licorice flavor is still present.

1998: Amber brown with a head that left quickly and some spotty lacing. Aromas of ginger, citrus, hops and some malts. Very malty flavors. Caramel. Vanilla. Ginger. Mellow hop backing. Creamy palate. Damn good beer. Finely aged.