Anchor Our Special Ale (2003)

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

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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Bottle 2012 edition bought from Alko Hyvinkää. Sweet burned and herbal aroma. Bitter burned taste. Coca-cola vegetable flavour. Some taste from gammal dansk. Have to run buy more. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Bottle brought over and shared by Doug on Christmas along with a ’89 and ’09, thanks
Appearance: Hazy dark brown with a small tan head and some lacing
Aroma: Toasted malts, bitter chocolate and spices
Taste: Toasted malts, some sourness and spices
Decent, compared to the others you could taste the similarities. This one was heading the same direction as the ’89

Bottle shared with Craig Christmas 2011. Pours a black color with a large brown head. The aroma is a odd sour and spicy nose, some oxidation. A sweet spicy flavor with some metallic sourness and bitter prune. Almost like unripe fruit and also overripe fruit! Bitter pine. Not my thing, interestingly this is very much like the 1989 I had heading that way for sure. Both has sourness and metallic flavors that were not pleasant. Drinkable, but odd.

Maybe a bit too long to cellar, this beer still offered a wonderful bouquet of yuletide flavors that left me grateful to try the beer and mucho thanks to my xmas party host. Poured from a bottle with a small off-white head and midnight-burnt sienna body, the flavor was on-point for an 8 year old brew. Nicely developed caramel and ginger notes mixed well with the noticeable spruce hints to create what I consider a full bodied beer (rare given the style). If you are lucky enough to try this beer, don’t complain if it isn’t what you expected. Just be gracious for the offering, remember the season, and enough what is a delightful winter/Christmas beer.

Pour out of bottle is dark reddish with thin white head, aroma has notes of caramel, pine, mint and spruce notes, touch of hints of spice in there with a touch of faint molasses. Taste is a really strong minty and pine, spruce tip presence, touch of molasses and slight dark fruit, finishing fairly clean and sweet. A bit weird but ok.

Bottle @ Bull & Bush Christmas tasting. Dark brown appearance with a light brown head. Spruce, piney, minty, caramel, toffee aroma. Minty, piney, sprucey, moderately oxidized, caramel/toffee malty flavor. I prefer the 2004 vintage slightly better but this one was ok.

Bottle vintages 2000-2006 shared at Paul’s Dec 3rd tasting. The 2000 and 2001 were by far the best - very interesting how this beer has aged especially considering the low alcohol to begin with. Aroma of the older years is full of prune, fig, raisins, and molasses. Mouthfeel is thin, but not watery with notes of dark fruits, brown sugar, molasses and some spices. Pretty similar to the 2002 vintage.

Bottle at Paul’s tasting. Pours a clear ruby tinged brown with a few scant bubbles around the edges. Sweet and malty on the nose, soft toffee, a touch of spices. Sweet and malty, oxidized with some plum and prune notes, lots of prune. Tangy on the finish.

Consumed 11.08.2011. Poured a dark brown color with a very tiny, almost non-existent, wispy head - carbonation still exists, but is mellow. Aroma has also mellowed quite a bit but retains signature notes of spices. Very sweet. Complexity is fading a bit, but it’s pretty enjoyable, even today. Can’t wait to try this one up against the next vintage.

(12oz bottle thanks to bu11zeye) medium ruby brown pour, ring of dark tan head. Nose of pine, spices, malt balls, and chocolate wafers. Taste of biscotti and unsweet rye bread, medium bitterness, mildly un-carbonated, with a dry bittersweet finish.