Anchor Brewery

Our Special Ale

ABV % • Vol 355 ml • bottle • USA • Expensive • Flavour 8.5
Other beers from Anchor Brewery
Other beers from USA

2002 version - review by Sparks. Score: 8.5
There are many, many spices in the nose of this excellent brew: nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise, cayenne pepper, ginger ... probably more but eventually we gave up listing them. Some of these spices have been added to the brew, others will have appeared spontaneously through the complexities of the other ingredients. And the complexity doesn't finish there; in the mouth is alcohol warmth, treacle and pear drops (though no sweetness). It is at once thick with treacle and light with phenols. It is rubbery, and it is nutty, with rasberries coming through towards the finish. There are some hops present, though these are massively overshadowed by the malt bitterness and the spices. There is liquorice, bitter chocolate and dark malt in the aftertaste, where the sweetness appears. What a fantastic beer! It is very complex, with loads of strong flavours, but it all hangs together beautifully, with nothing swamping anything else.

2000 version - review by Des de Moor. Strength: 5.5%; Score: 7
San Francisco's Anchor Brewery is the grandaddy of the contemporary US micro scene, best known for its highly distinctive Steam Beer. This limited edition bottle conditioned winter special, for which the recipe is varied each year, goes on sale from Thanksgiving through Chanukah, Christmas and New Year and is supposed to be off the shelves by early January, so I suppose I was lucky to chance upon a bottle in the Pitfield Beer Shop in early March. The 2000 is the only "vintage" I've tasted so I can't compare it to previous years. It poured beautifully dark with a nice coffeeish head, and a winey aroma with shades of liquorice (I suspect this was among the added flavouring ingredients) and blackcurrant pastilles. The body was soft with some CO2 tingling, and the palate dry but full and malty, with an even more pronounced liquorice taste than in the nose. On the swallow clear black coffee and chicory notes emerged, tailing off into a finish that combined ashy, tongue-puckering dryness and the richness of Christmas pud, with a hint of pine nuts and, finally, an overwhelmingly coffeeish departing impression. A good, interesting beer, but not integrated enough to be great.

1999 version(?) - review by Peter Alexander. Score: 8.5
Pours almost black with a tan head which settles down to a loose slight layer over the beer. Aroma is roast malt, molasses and caramel.
Immediate taste is a complex and mouth filling blend of different tastes. Firstly there is dark malt underlain by subtle but apparent spices. The label shows a juniper bush so I would guess this must be a feature and perhaps sloes, as there is a faint gin like quality to this beer which (if you like gin) is very appealing. There is a distinct dryness to the beer and although roast malt is there, I would also hazard a guess at liquorice for both flavour and colour. Beer has a very full mouthfeel even though it is quite dry and there is probably nutmeg and perhaps even a touch of cinnamon in there too.
A very hard beer to provide tasting notes on, so let's just move on to hedonism. This a luscious, complex beer of both quality and depth. Fruitiness, spiciness, bitterness, a touch of sweetness and alcohol. In short the lot is packed in there and it works. Excellent sipping and contemplative beer, which would be ideal when everyone else in the house has gone to bed and you just want to mull over the day's events on your own. Hard to define but quite outstanding.

Strength varies from year to year; not given on the label

OBBD reviewer: Sparks

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