Anchor Our Special Ale (2004)

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

Poured brown with reddish hues with an off-white head that left thin lacing on the glass. Smells of caramel, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Tastes of molasses, caramel, and allspice with a bitter finish. Also has a roasted nut character to it. Good, but not as spicy or sweet as I thought it would be.

Next year I will forego getting an xmas tree and just put a small string of white lights around a six-pack of this excellent holiday offering-- which is becoming quite the holiday tradition for me! (Its better than caroling!) This strong, Pine-laced, porter-ish ale deserves to be served with a stilton cheeseburger with some thick steak fries. It is robust and beefy. Not too fruity, but a definite presence of nutmeg and allspice. Happy Holidays!

Generous light brown head. Settles very nicely. Good carbonation. Plesant aroma of fresh gingerbread, nutmeg, hazelnut and spices. Reminds me of those cookies in the orange box that you get around the holidays. I forget the name. Color is an excellent dark mahagony red. Beautiful! Flavor is roasty and creamy. Kind of a flat mouthfeel though. Bit of dark chocolate and coffee. Mellow spice. Spices are more prominent in the finish which is long and slightly dry and bitter. One of the better holiday brews that I have had.

Dark as mud with a solid earth-toned head. Powerful aroma ... Smells more like pine than our Christmas tree. Robust in flavor, pinenut, nutmeg, cinammon, and nutmeg, but with a mediciney finish. Thinner consistency than you’d expect.

Wow this one really tastes like a Christmas beer. Dark color, smell is of sweet nutmeg and ginger. Very spicy sweet with nutmeg, alspice, cinnomon, clove and ginger. You name it this beer had something for everyone. The flavor is very complex and each time you taste it you will get something new out of it.

Had this one bottled. Very, very dark red color, thin, browish head, very distinct nose that I couldn’t place. Flavor was _extremely_ alcoholic ... to the point that I thought someone had spiked mine with a shot of vodka, but all four I had were all the same. Like the nose, a very distinct note in the taste I could not place and was completely overpowered by the alcohol taste. I won’t buy this one again.

Christmas in a bottle. Very spicey aroma and taste. plenty of allspice and ginger flavors. Very reminscient of a homebrew i made years ago.

Bottle. Amber color with small, thin head. Aroma is light nutmeg and spices. Taste is allspice, hops, brown sugar and caramel. I like these at leat five years old and ’04 needs some time. Not bad though.