Anchor Small Beer

Brewed by Anchor Brewing Company
Style: Bitter
San Francisco, California USA

Serve in English pint

Bottle: Orange-tinged golden brew, lightly active, with a thin top. The aroma is sweet and almost fruity. It drinks with a stark acerbic sting right up front, not unlike your first sting when you bite into an orange rind to start peeling it. This mellows as you go, but it provides a barrier between this beer being a standard ol’ golden lager or ale and what it is, which is a very cool nice style made by a newly historic brewer. Miscategorized here as a bitter, I suppose because that’s the closest they can do, but this is a neat examplar. (#3227, 11/30/2007)

20-Nov-07 (22-oz bottle: Purchased 20-Nov-07 for $3.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) This is one of those beers that you often see on beer shelves and keep moving down the aisle. Maybe it’s just the unsexy name, or maybe the fact that it doesn’t come in six-packs and thus is kept in the singles section, away from all the other Anchor products. Pouring the beer, the slightly hazy, golden-amber body is capped by a tall, fluffy, off-white head that settles to a wide ring. Stylistically, the English character of Small Beer is unmistakable. In the nose, it is nutty, woody, cobwebby, dry and slightly buttery, and offers very light hop aroma. Similarly, nutty, earthy and very woody flavors intermingle on the palate, with a moderate background hop character throughout and a mild butteriness in the finish. The beer decidedly lacks any sweetness whatsoever. Body is light to medium and the mouthfeel is extremely clean with a light crispness in the finish from the hops. Carbonation is light-medium, and with alcohol being so low, this could make an excellent session beer for someone who really liked the flavor profile. But overall, it’s a rather woody-tasting beer, and I just don’t find it to be all that enjoyable.

On tap at Small Bar- Division, Chicago. What a disappointment! I was expecting an easy-to-drink barleywine session beer. Instead it tasted like a chepaly made Czech beer with that metallic Saaz hops flavor. I don’t know what is going on with this beer, but it’s almost undrinkable. If this beer is historic-- then I think you would drink this in the middle ages when the water supply wasn’t sanitary and this watery beer would have to suffice. Yuck!

UPDATED: NOV 9, 2007 Bottle... Poured a honey color with a fizzy head. This tasted like water that had grain and malt soaking in it. Really nothing there. I can respect the ambitions and historical reference behind the beer. But I can’t imagine someone regularly buying this beer.

Light caramel malt aroma with some noble or floral hop nose. Amber gold color with a white head that wasn’t trying too hard. Near medium body with mild, creamy carbonation. The flavor is something of light caramel with a very impressive bitterness. The finish is pretty much the same, and the bitter persists nicely into the finish. Not exactly crisp, but very, very nice. This is a session beer.

Bottle from Bevmo> Pours a translucent amber-gold with a sudsy off-white head that had plenty of lacing. Aroma was moderate in strength with barley malts and some allspice. The flavor is weak compared to what I have been drinking recently. Flavors present were weak malts, honey, bread and a slightly sour hoppy finish. The mouthfeel was thin and watery, but left a slightly pasty after-effect. Overall: A very good lawn-mower beer. I applaud Anchor for keeping this style alive.

Bottled. Poured clear brighter golden with a medium cap of creamy white head. The aroma picked up sweet bready notes and honey along with citrus and floral accents.. sweeter and fruitier as it approached room temp. The flavor found caramel, honey, and doughy bread with a moderate, but lingering citrus bitterness beyond the finish.. light musty vegetal notes detract a bit, otherwise tasty. Lighter-bodied and sweet with decent balance.. the bitterness was a touch abrasive at times.

22oz. Bottle: Smells of malt and mash. Poured copper in color with a tiny off-white head that diminished immediately. Flavor is medium bitter. Tastes of malt, sourdough, salt, a tiny bit of caramel. Light to medium body. Tingly texture. Lively carbonation. Bitter finish.