Anchor Our Special Ale (2004)

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

Poured brown with a thick tan head. Very creamy. Smell had cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, spices, caramel brown sugar. Very sugary taste. Too much so in my opinion. Suggestions of chocolate came into the flavor. Palate was thick but way to sugary for me. A little medicinal as someone else said. Overall this was descent, but I would like to try the 05 because it sounds better.

Pour looks like filtered sewage. Murky, dirty, medium dark brownish, not very attractive til you realize it is only beer. Nose is very earthy, some dirt, big malt, caramel, spices, and a light layer of chocolate. Flavor is pretty dang tasty, that earthiness comes out even more, producing a carrot like presence or something straight form the ground. The spices also step up to the plate big time. Very well done, and definitly an excellent brew for the cold holiday season.

Dark brown beer with a small tan head. Very spicy aroma, almost like mince meat pie. I was really looking forward to this beer and had high hopes since the porter is one of my favorite U.S. brewed beers. The flavor just didnt agree with me, there seemed to be some heavy dark malts, which was ok but then odd flavors appeared that shouldn’t be in any beer.. green beans? stewed cabbage? medicinal herbs? Finish is dry with an odd vegetable bitterness. The flavors seemed to be mismatched and incompatible. I’ll keep a couple for trying again this Christmas, but somehow I don’t think it will be any better by then. We can hope.

Cloudy red/brown with a medium sized bubbly head with a slick of beige. Sweet spiced ginger nose with molases, turbinado, and english hops. Mouthfeel is a little thinner than expected. Cakey brown bread, more molases, some berry and citrus tart. It has most of the qualities of the ’99 so it should age quite well. Thanks jesse.

2004 ale tasted on Oct. 26 2005. Dark brown pour with thin light tan head. Aroma of spice and carmel. Sweet carmel, ginger or cinnamon and spice. Finishes with a pumpkin pie like taste on the back on the tongue. Pretty darn good. I can’t wait for 2005 version.

Brown pour with a small head and nice lacing on the glass. Slightly darker than the 2003 version. Once again a spicy aroma and flavor, although I didn’t enjoy this one as much. There is little difference between the beers, some slight tasting differences in this one as well as a darker color, but overall I’m guessing a year in the bottle helped the 2003 version.

12oz. Bottle: Strong aroma of nutmeg, ginger, smoke, carmel, malts. Poured dark brown with a small tan head that lasted a while. Produced small lacing. Flavor was smokey, choclatey, and roasted, with hints of ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and malts. Light to medium bodies. Watery at first but became more viscous. A bit acidic. Too much spice for me; Tastes like it would make a good cookie.

35,5 cl bottle. Tasted during trip to California. Black colour with a nice beige but little head. Roasted aroma that contained hints of spice and chocolate. Oddly spice flavour with notes of darkchokolate that ends very dry nearly no bitterness, very low body. Little carbonation. When visiting only 12 pack could be purchased hence I am now tasting the last of twelve poor christmasbeer.