Anchor Our Special Ale (2003)

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

Pours to a deep brown body with a very thin tan head. The aroma seems to be deeply malty with some mace and sweet cinnamon. The flavor has a lot of malt on the backbone with some earthy twigs and cinnamon. Earthen milk chocolate and perhaps ginger? The palate is medium bodied and easy to drink. Has a light note of tang.

Aroma is strange, like Christmas and farts. Maybe some chocolate, but probably not. And some sugary sweetness. Taste is sweet spices, juniper, subtle hops, and sugary malts. NIce! Finish is sweet, a bit spicy-bitter, and that’s it. Decent.

You’d have to be a real grinch to get angry at their special ale. It’s a gift, don’t be ungrateful.

Bottle from Liquid Solutions. Pours extremely dark with a small beige head. Aroma of sweet xmas spice. Very mellow. Full bodied with creamy carbonation. Flavor seems a bit evergreen, with lots of mouth coating stuff. Nuts. Maybe chocolate. Pretty malty, but something like juniper cuts that right down. Lots of spice. Xmas type stuff. Finishes somewhere between sweet and dry. Maybe ending with a mild toffee note. Complex as all heck.

This bottled brew from a rating party poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized brown colored bubbles that were and left behind a opaque chocolate colored body. The aroma was brown malt chocolate and nutty. The mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and at the finish. The flavor contained notes of spices brown malt and herbal. A decent one but not one that I would consider buying again.

2003 bottle courtesy of my Secret Santa. Pours murky brown with almost zero head. The nose is spice, tobacco but not as much as the 2000, and malt. The taste is dark fruits, spice, light chocolate and tobacco. Medium flat mouthfeel. I really dig these beers with some age on them. Thanks Wayne!

12oz bottle from Liquid Solutions. Thanks for hooking this one up Matt! Pours a deep, cloudy rusty amber color with a 2 finger beige head that left some spotty lacing. Nose was quite deep and complex, reminds me of a milder version of Sam Adams Triple Bock. Nose has that kind of BBQ, Worcestershire action to it. Flavor was very rich and really coated the tongue. A little different than I expected, then again, I never really expected to try this brew.....

The aroma is complex. My immediate thought is spruce, lots of pine. There is also a sweetness--caramel or melted sugar. I also detect some nutty smells, mostly macadamia. Deep brown, too dark to shine light through a regular pint glass. Beige head that dies quick but leaves a thin layer of tiny bubbles and dramatic lace. Very rich beer that offers multiple malt flavors--roasted nuts, slight chocolate, sweet crystal, a touch of black patent. Very low hop, but it doesn’t need it since the flavor is already so robust. Highly carbonated, but subtle because of the oily nature of the liquid. The post-swallow flavors are chewy, dark and dessert-like. This is a beer to have by the fire with great friends and great conversation.