Anchor Our Special Ale (2005 and later)

2007 Vintage

Poured out a medium brown brew with red hues, a mid range brown crown of average size with good retention and a little bit of spotty lacing. The aroma here is pretty cool even if it doesn’t immediately appeal to you since it is odd. Roasty and fresh, the fruit is both prune like and orangy at the same time, there is also a vegetable aroma that is very squash like, biscuit and smoke. The smoke is there for sure with weak cloves. Something makes me think of chocolate but it is not chocolate.... I’ll question this next time. Some how, I give this an 8 even though it is not overly appealing - just unique and complex. The taste is of wet biscuits, a toffee roast, mild piny hops and a slight spice. Main flavor for me is the roasted malts. The mouth feel is quite nice with a very welcoming carbonation, medium to medium full bodied, ends with dark roast on the aftertaste and a bitterness that fades as the beer warms. I think this is a bit too roasted for me but either way it is an interesting beer.

Flaske 0,355l. Dyp rød på farge - nesten sort. Et høyt kremaktig skum som varer lenge. Litt brunfarge. Frisk aroma av frukt og bær. Variert fruktig smak som glir over i en bitterhet med overtoner av ristet malt. Ettersmak av kaffe og karamell. KI=5

15-JUN-2009. Bottle @Den Tatoverede Enke. Dark brown with little head. Very interesting nose and taste. I really enjoy this complex beer. loads of porter and christmas flavors blend together to form a wonderfull beer.

"(2008)Dark brown with ruby red elements when held up to light. a thick brown rests on top. Aroma is nice, cinnamon cloves, cream cheese icing, chocolate and possibly pine. That is a uber wicked smell complicated and inviting. Taste doesn’t disappoint either sweet to a mild sour, lots of clove, pine, vanilla so many flavours. Fresh backing mild amounts of sweet chocolate. This is very drinkable you can sip on it for hours a pick out different flavours constantly. 9.87 thumbs up for this year’s addition. " " (2007) Body of the beer appears very dark brown and had a ruby red glow when held to the light. A thick tan cap floats on top of the beer and has amazing retention which is leaving behind thick walls of lacing, this is a dam nice looking beer. Aroma is a bit of a disappointment with its public bathroom soap quality and slight sourness. Soft spice notes of cinnamon, cloves, and coriander are appearing in the scent and a smooth malt character is coming through. The aroma is both good and bad not overly appealing but very interesting. Flavor is way milder than I ever would have expected it to be, bitter dark malts, pine, spices, and a very out of place strange flavor of turkey dark meat seems to hang out in the after taste. The more I drink the more cloves I can taste and maybe just a hint of chocolate. Very complex and interesting but not the beer I was hoping for. "

This is a 2007 bottle so I’m not sure if this is an accurate rating or not so I’m going to have to go by how it is as of now. Nice dark brown almost black color. Smells of spices, malts, hops, and nutty scents. Taste has nice body with hints of hops, nuts and spices. I’m not sure if this is a little too old or not, but it’s a pretty good brew.

completely unexpected on the color of this pour was black with brown around edges aromas and flavors are hard to pin point but molasses,malts,fruits,and spices,pine just to much ging on in here

Overall Impression: I do not have a lot of information on this old rating, but I do remember thinking this one was pretty good.
**Could use a re-rating on next tasting

This beer is very similar to Kirsten Dunst, nice body, but not much else worth bragging about. This one is aggressive with the spices, very rich, sweet, and malty. IMO, too much in the spice and plum/raisin/prune. There is a strong taste of dark fruit that isnt balanced enough with hops or alcohol. I prefer previous years over the 2008.