Anchor Our Special Ale (2005 and later)

I picked this bottle up in San Francisco, and with the hope that I can hasten Spring’s arrival by getting rid of all my winter seasonals, I popped the cap. I can tell you right now that a luscious fruitcake aroma hit me as I poured this into a chalice. A very dark rusty blood body (ugh...I have to work on these descriptions) gives birth to a medium sized well-browned meringue head. The aroma of the aforementioned fruitcake is the big hit in this. It smells smooth and rich, full of spices that are not overplayed, but well-meshed instead. The flavour is impressive and soothing. There is quite a lot of caramel malt forming a backdrop against nicely balance cinnamon and nutmeg flavours, along with the hint of pine, before leading through to a slightly dry finish. The body is medium, and matches the flavours and feel of this beer very well. In fact, overall I’d say this is an excellently crafted seasonal brew, that left me wanting more.

The 2007 holiday offering was less than stellar. Has a beautiful look to it. Great head retention. That’s about where the joy ended for me. Has almost a leafy taste to it. Hard to describe. Aftertaste has a hint of peppermint.

2007 12oz bottle. The classic American Christmas beer. Deep black with faint stained glass red shining through when held to light. A little less piny than the last few years, Still has the signature cinnamon-nutmeg (?) mellow spice characteristics of years past. Great, multi-faceted beer. 2004 Magnum bottle held up quite well when opened in August of 2009. Still had a solid piny evergreen taste, something I thought quite pronounced in that year’s version.

2007 on tap. Black color with a beige head. Aroma of malts and spices. Flavor was an explosion of well balanced spices and malts.

355 ml bottle. 2006 vintage. Dark, almost black with a strong ruby red hue. Tall fluffy beige fine-laced head. Potent spice aroma with a dominating apricot background. The aroma is fantastic. Well-balanced and enticing. Feels a bit light-bodied and thin on the tongue initially. Little malts, but quite a bit of spice-infused flavour. Ends with a light sourness on the tongue. The finish is of juniper. Very nice beer, and is actually very drinkable.

Bottled. 2007 Version. Aroma has roasted malts, some licorice, ginger (luckily not too much), cinnamon, other spices. Black coloured with a beige, medium head. Taste is a bit sweet with roasted maltiness and spices. Well balanced and with all the spices, I think that’s quite hard. So good job, this one.

2007 version, Inspire, Coventry. Mahogany pour with red edges, and an irregular beige head and lace. Distinct ginger, cinnamon and possibly rosemary in the aroma and flavour, but not excessively mulled or overdone, and nicely underpinned by roasted malt and sourish lactic touches. Aromatically spiced festive ale.

Bottled. A pitch black beer with a slight brown shine under a huge brown head. The aroma is sweet with strong spicy notes among them strong notes of spruce and cardemomme - a bit too much for me. The flavor is sweet again with strong notes of spices - especially spruce and cardemmome, but then a note of roasted malt joins in, and combines with the spices to give it an extremely dry finish.