Anchor Our Special Ale (2005 and later)

Brewed by Anchor Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Francisco, California USA

I’m sure this would be great if you like the flavors they used, but I just couldn’t stand it. Liquorice, cloves, and some other spices I couldn’t distinguish.

Poured into a snifter. Nice dark opaque color that appears black until you put it in front of a strong light, in which case piercing garnet hues emerge. Exemplary 3 finger head of fluffy tan foam reaches up to the rim of the glass and as it recedes, leaves tons of intricate lacing. A distinct Jagermeister/licorice note in the nose, along with a nice spiciness, maybe cinnamon. A medicinal herbal flavor comes through a curtain of dark peaty malt, a bit like Jager and a bit like cough syrup. Some hop bitterness complements the spices. Notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Dry finish on the tongue, but the rest of the mouth is syrupy. A nice warmth comes through as the glass gets shorter. It would be easy to drink several of these on a cold winter night.

Tasted 2007-12-28. 2007 version. Pours clear red/brown/black with beige head. Spices and hops are very present. It reminds me a lot of Nøgne Ø’s Underlig Jul. Very tasty!

Anchor’s holiday brew was pretty good at first but the more i drank the more i disliked it for some reason

2007 bottle. Pours a midnight cola color with a head of creamy beige. Laces in chunks. Dense and moist dessert cake aromas. Anise. Flavors roll over the tongue with clingy ground cinnamon. Ginger by the tablespoonful. Heady licorice. Bready feel. Aggressive and assertive spicing. A yearly 6-pack staple for me, but they’re getting harder and harder to differentiate year-to-year.

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.