Anchor Our Special Ale (2003)

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

Bottled. Gorgeous dark ruby, black unless a light is directly behind, smallish lasting creamy meringue head. Wonderful, very characteristic OSA nose: allspice, fresh pine, anise, lavender. Flavor seems much more bitter this year, very dry and heavily carbonated, brackish hops at the front, malt only prominent towards the finish. Strong roasted character to that finishing malt also .. almost no sugar at all. It's interesting, but not my favorite vintage.

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.

Recieved as a bonus in a trade with Kevin. Poured with no head topping the dark brown and ruby body. The aroma was bread and ginger with cinnamon and apples. The taste is light and smooth with a base of caramel and milk chocolate. Then you get the spicy ginger and warm peaches backign up the base. Nicely done.

Well folks here it goes, after a bad experience with the 2002 and 04 OSA, I didn’t hold out much hope for this beer either. A rich brown hue topped by a small but lasting head and some lacing. The aroma is spicy and flowery as expected but not over-the-top. Notes of ginger, cardamom, juniper, and spruce woven with some earthy yeast esters and a touch of sugar. The taste is equal to the nose, with a strong spice character but again it seems more subdued than the 02 and 04 siblings. I can taste the malt and even the bitters in this beer. YEAH! This is what I remembered older OSA being like and the ones I used to enjoy. Glad I have one more of these to enjoy later, renewed my faith in this beer. (Thanks to who sent me these beers in trade, I think Kevin was one of the traders)

Poured a dark brown color with thin off-white head. Aroma of dark fruit, some mixed spice and some pine. semi-sweet malt with some fruit and mixed spices.

Apparently their best OSA. My mates and me took a while to drink this one. But it had a nice dark roast appearance and spicy pine roasted chestnut aroma. On sweet side with seasonal spices of nutmeg, cinammon, sugar, pine, almond, ginger.

Bottle (12oz). Shared with blankboy and garthicus, via trade with irishboy. Deep ruby-brown with a lasting frothy off-white head. Aromas of nut oil, sweet roast, mint, herbs spice and molasses, somewhat dry. Tastes the same, very smooth, noticeably spicy and ’’Christmas’’y. Pleasantly silky mouthfeel, very well balanced between roastiness and spice - the was terrific stuff, hardly seemed 5 years old.

Clove aroma with other Christmas like spice. In flavour spices are exposed even more, body cot slightly creamy texture. Some ginger a la Kopernik from Torun. Interesting beer that would love it or hate it.