Seven Years of Anchor "Our Special Ale"

With winter starting to fade, and spring time appearing, we can take pause and reflect on what is truly great about the colder months... Anchor Christmas Ale. Every year since 1975 the brewers at Anchor have brewed a distinctive and unique Christmas Ale, which is available from early November to mid-January. The Ale's recipe is different every year—as is the tree on the label—but the intent with which it is offered remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/christmasale.htm With some collaborative effort from good friends S. Joe Griffin and Richard Perry, seven years of this beer were brought together for one sit down session of vertical tasting. Unlike previous tastings, I have done, this one was not geared toward delineating any useful ranking of the beers. Instead it was a quest for understanding and appreciating a unique ale as it has evolved and aged. Because of this, there was no blind taste test, just a careful consideration of beer as it existed in front of us. For insight beyond the scope of this blog, check out the original pictures and other opinions from Joe and Richard HERE.

THE BEERS...

2004: This beer is seven years old. Needless to say I did not know what to expect. First off this beer had a fairly surprising and strong aroma. A nice spicy sweet smell. The first sip was thin and light bodied, however the malt is strong and flavorful, with a slightly burnt smokey taste, much like a stout. The spices are muted taste wise as the malt itself is very present. Not a lot of hop bitterness, however the  aftertaste had something piney about it. Overall a very good start to the tasting. The remarkable thing about this beer is how flavorful it was after seven years. Often a beer that has aged for only a year or so looses some of the nuances of added spices. This beer however retained a fair bit of its original flavor. Or, when it was fresh, it was the most flavor packed and spiced beer ever made... 

2005: This beer offered an abrupt change of pace. No real trace was left of the original spices that may have flavored this beer at some point. Instead, the beer had a bit of sourness to it. Not necessarily a wild flavor, but the yeast may have aged out of the beer a bit and caused some weirdness...or goodness depending how you look at it. The malt had a somewhat bourbon like character to it. Not really strong at all, just a hint. The finish was fairly sweet. This beer was good, and just that. It was a little disappointing after the previous year being so flavorful, however this kind of flavor was exactly what I was expecting for a six year old beer. Overall, Likable but forgettable...

2006: Very sweet beginning to this beer. The malt is strong and upfront initially but there is a flatness to this beer. Bland and no dynamics here really, but as the tasting continued, an apparent chocolate like characteristic became present. The burnt flavors of the malt also showed up and it seemed more like a stout that anything else. At this point I really enjoyed it, but not as the Christmas ale I have come to know. The spice had dropped out completely and all that is left is an o.k. stout like ale.

2007: This beer had a strong presence right off the bat. Sweet at first with a very alcohol strong finish. Again, there is a bourbon like taste apparent here. This beer seems more lively than the previous two. Also, the stout like burnt malt taste is not really a large part of the characteristic of this beer as it had been in the others. The malt instead had something more bready going for it. Much like an Anchor Steam beer. At this point I was starting to think that maybe these ales are brewed with malt bases that mirror existing Anchor beers like Steam, Porter, and Bock. Maybe. Either way this beer aged exceptionally well and was a stand out among the others.

2008: This beer had a much drier flavor and feel than any of the ones before. The malt was a little heavier as well. Not a strong malt presence overall, but more spice and complexity apparent here. It seemed that some dried fruit esters were still present from the yeast. It had aged fairly well and was fairly tasty. The standout characteristic here was the more pronounced hop and bitterness that was much  stronger that any other beer here. However, this aspect was not overwhelming. A very balanced, and somewhat spicy amber ale. This beer was not the most interesting out of the bunch, but it definitely held its own over the last couple years.

2009: This beer was very strong and spicy. Being only a year old, I expected this beer to retain some of its original flavor. The beer is light bodied overall. It most resembles the 2004 in terms of spice and aroma and literally tastes like Christmas. Very sweet with a slightly bitter finish. Again the dried fruit notes are present but the interaction of the intense spice and malt with what seems to be a strong yeast works to really round out the flavor of the beer. Honestly this is one of my favorite years. I had it quite a bit in 2009 when it was fresh and I loved it. It hopefully will be one that keeps it's flavor for some years to come. 

2010: This is a much fresher tasting beer obviously. It has everything right about it. A good upfront spicy aroma and taste without being overwhelming. The brewers have balanced these characteristics with a malt that is not heavy or overly stout like. Instead we get a very normal beer taste, kind of  bready, with a hint of burnt malt. It is similar in malt complexity to the 2007 version. However, instead of a Steam like taste, this beer invokes the subtle flavor of the Anchor Humming Ale. This sentiment was shared by Joe. This beer has a noticeable hop flavor as well, which may be adding to the  Humming Ale similarity. Overall this is the most balanced beer here. I have a hunch though that this beer may not age as well as others have. I realize that many of the beers here that seem bland or plain may have been well balanced to begin with  and the loss of  the spice character may  actually "kill" the beer in a sense. Regardless, I am looking forward to next years batch and seeing what this one will do over time.

For the sake of consistency, I did actually decide on my top three favorites of the tasting...

1) 2010

2) 2009

3) 2004   

Seeing as I may never be able to drink a 2004 Christmas ale again and given its potency after seven years of aging, it may be the best beer I have ever had in the grand scheme of things. However, for the task at hand it is placed accurately in relation to the others. 

Until next year...