Anchor Our Special Ale (2005 and later)

Pours a dark brown with a soft red hue and a thick tan head. Aroma is very much like spiced Christmas cookies, like ginger. A nice bit of roasted malt as well. Flavor starts with the same bit of bold baked cookie sweetness and picks up the spices halfway through. The spices are much more bold on the back of the tongue. Finishes very sweet but then gets hit by a short lasting bitterness. Medium-full body and moderate carbonation. Very rich Christmas Ale that is rich and creamy. Represents the season very well!

2008. Ok, this must be a special year, because I was floored by this one. And then I saw the average rating which seems way low to me. Pours root beer opaque with tall tan foamy head that lasts a long time. One sip of this is all it took. Absolutely delicious. Molasses, nutmeg, and all sorts of tasty flavors that come together almost perfectly to me. Oily mouth feel.

Pours a murky brown with a medium creamy off-white head that fades thinly and leaves some bubbly lacing. Aroma is bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and caramel. Taste is creamy, bready malts, cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, and finishes with a faint taste of smoke and some bitterness. I like this a lot, actually!

2008. Pours deep mahogany into a shaker. Fluffy mocha head with medium retention leaves sheet lacing as it recedes to skim surface. Nutmeg, cinnamon and clove aromas. Creamy and full with nuts and pumpkin spices upfront and a slightly resinous hop finish.

Draft. Caramel, butterscotch nose with spied clove, nutmeg, allspice body. smooth, full flavor but really not something that taste goods to me. another anchor beer I can’t stomach.

Pours dark and with little head. Fairly creamy and smooth. Smell is spicy and full of caramel. Flavor is a bit of a letdown. Mild, grainy and lacking on the spice. Almost tastes like it has been sitting for too long. It isnt terrible, but it isnt as good as I would have hoped.

So Christmassy! Pours dark, a deep brown with an average head. Smells like butterscotch - sweet, buttery caramel malts, brown sugar and baking spices. Flavor is like a pastry in a glass. No joke. Nutmeg, cloves and allspice up front, with some stale grain and hazelnut flavors, too. Festive, for sure, but it leaves something to be desired. Thin? Stale? Very creamy. It needs something fresher, thicker, maybe heavier. Really not bad, though.

Pours a really nice deep brown/black color with a thin white head. My immediate impression on the aroma was wet dog which was a little off putting. Flavor is some malt, a little biscuit, but a lot of all-spice, mace and cloves. For all of that, the mouthfeel is a little thin. A touch of bitterness. Not terrible, not great.