Anchor Our Special Ale (2004)

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

Not as great as the aged 2000, but still good. It was a little more plain than the older vintage. Some nutmeg in the aroma. Flavor has malt and sugar, but this beer is better described as bitter than sweet.

Color; dark coffee. Nose; spicey malt, coffee. Palate; medium nectar. Slightly hopped, definable spice-clove/vanilla bean/pine/, tobacco with slight celery on the finish. Rich and spicey w/ a dry perfume finish.

Dark brown color, almost reddish. Hoppy aroma, maybe some cascade, the citrus like smell might also come from Seville orange peels. A very rounded feel in the mouth with a disitnct bitterness. Some burnt flavours in the after taste.

Tap, and amazing! Quite similar to 2005 version, but still fantastic, this is one beer that doesn’t disappoint. Very festive, with the distinctive fig, coffee, and molassas notes. A great beer I was pleased to find.

Well it may be retired but it seemed to be fresh and in fine form when I had this recently. This was from my IB shop’s goodie box and what a goodie it is. The beer pours well and is an agreeable amber colour. There is a real melange of flavours here with orange, clove and Christmas pudding fruitiness with it also being balanced well by a good hop ratio. Flavoursome and very pleasing. I need to order some more.

(12oz bottle) Pours a near headless deep brown body. The nose of pureed figs and honey. The flavour is so rich and figgy, sweet malt and natural. Lasting oily sweet dried fruit. Very likeable!

This beer offers a wonderful aroma full of peppa, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, all-spice, and molasses. This beer fills the glass with a dark dark brown solution that resides under a thick walnut colored head. This thick and heavy beer presents itself smoothly to the mouth. The palate is enticed with the initial flavor of nutmeg, then ginger creeps in followed by all-spice. All these flavors come together to leaving a wonderful mixture of taste resonating on the palate and in the throat for a good long time.

It smells like Christmas. Clove and cinammon, orange peel and gingerbread. Fresh ginger and a bit of chocolate, too. Dark brown-red clear with off-white lacing head. Medium bodied with medium-high carbonation. Starts with spicy Christmas flavors; ginger, cinammon, clove and nutmeg. Decent carbonic acidity and sweet roasty malts. Dry hoppy bitterness comes at the finish and dries off the tongue. Nice bit of baker’s chocolate, too. Nice Christmas ale, with a bit of an herbal after.