Anchor Our Special Ale (2005 and later)

2007--Beautiful dark brown ale with a creamy brown head and nice lacing. Aroma is spice and juniper. Spice and spruce with nice bitter note and a bit of warming. medium body, creamy, bitter finish moving to mild sweetness.

2007 bottle. Aroma of spices, malts, coffee, mint, and cinnamon (among other holiday spices). Pour is a deep dark brown color with a medium thick brown head. The flavor just wowed me. Complex, and enjoyable.

2007. Excellent nose of spice & malt, perfume, roasted coffee, cola, and fruit (both berries and dried). The brew pours a clear ruby. The tall dense beige head is fully lasting and ultra creamy with decent lace. The brew is malty and roasted through and through. The middle has a moderate acidity and the finish is both spicy and roasted. The full body is lively and chewy like a stout. The finish feels dry. This is a very exceptional offering, I wish I would have taken home more than one bottle.

2007 Magnum
Dark brown. Spicy, minty, cinnamony aroma doesn’t disappoint. Grk. Thin and flat body. Spices limp along without any particular malt to back them up. Liquorice flavour is strong but comes across far too bitter - again showing a lack of residual sugar. Thin, weak, poorly executed. Far below Anchor’s and this beer’s standards. Had to choke it back.

12 ounce 2007 bottle in pint glass. Dark brown, almost black with dense brown head and lace. Aroma of anise and chocolate. Excellent mellow flavor of anise, chocolate other spice and fruit with medium bitterness. Medium-full body and medium-low carbonation. Excellent mouthfeel. Amazingly smooth in a good way. Much better than I remember for a fresh Anchor Christmas. Excellent.

2007 bottle, consumed on 12/21/07. Aromas of nutmeg and spice and cola. Flavor is nicely malty with spices appearing on midtongue. Finish has a light touch of bitterness with a lingering nutmeg/clove character that’s not entirely welcome by the end of the bottle. Mostly well done. One bottle is enough, though; not a good session beer.

Pours deep brown with fluffy thick head. Nose is a cola like malt with caramel and spice. Flavor is cloves and spice. Very smooth and easy drinking.

The 2007 ale, in December 2007: dark, almost black, red-brown with a big, thick light brown head that is long lasting and leaves some lacing. The aroma is nutmeg, rootberr, and hint of anise and clove over a malty-toasty body. The taste is rather like a porter-brown ale (of the Newcastle type) mix with spices, toasted grain (not burnt), rootbeer, and faint hints of coffee and chocolate. There is a light bitterness. It’s fairly complex and hard to pin down and is very tasty, interesting, somewhat complex, satisfying, and smooth.