Our Special Ale 2011 (Anchor Christmas Ale) - Anchor Brewing Company

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BA SCORE
87
very good
-
626 Ratings

rAvg: 3.86
pDev: 14.77%
Reviews: 280
Hads: 346

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Brewed by:
Anchor Brewing Company

California, United States

Style | ABV
Winter Warmer | 5.50% ABV

Availability: Limited (brewed once). bottle (250), on-tap (29), growler (1).

Notes:
This beer is retired; no longer brewed.

No notes at this time.

View: Beers (16) | Events (0)

Reviews

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Reviews by MusicaleMike:

MusicaleMike

Pennsylvania

4.25/5 rDev +10.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Anchor's Our Special Ale 2011 is just a fantastic beer. Anchor continues to switch up the recipe each year, and I continue to look forward to what they have to offer.

This year's offering is a deep, dark caramel brown that shows off some beautiful ruby highlights. The froth that tops this beer is thick and pillowy, and just wants to stick around for a long time. The clarity in the beer is great too!

The smell is similar to year's past, with notes of chocolate, spearmint, almond, cinnamon, spruce tips, caramel, and allspice. Very complex aroma, and not in the least unpleasant or medicinal. The aroma is a great mix of various spices, hops and dark roasted malts.

The taste is obviously in line with the aroma, and I get a very herbal flavor up front followed by a lingering sweetness that really balances out the overall palette well. My initial impression is that this is somewhat reminiscent of a cola or root beer. Really great flavor this year. It definitely leans more towards sweet at the end, making this a perfect pairing for some holiday treats...

It's slick on the tongue, with a medium to light body that also helps draw home the association with cola in some ways. Soft carbonation and a rounded out body.

Overall, I find this to be a pleasant winter warmer, with enough complexity to keep me interested all winter long and yet it is drinkable enough that I would reach for this on any given occasion. Definitely would be interested in trying this with a food dish, possibly some pork tenderloin with honey glazed carrots, or more obviously, with some gingerbread and ice cream. Great beer as usual! Grab this while you can and age a few bottles too. I recently had a 1995 and it was still quite good!

Serving type: bottle

11-19-2011 02:43:55 | More by MusicaleMike

More User Reviews:

AmandaSchaefer

Wisconsin

3/5 rDev -22.3%

05-13-2013 23:03:29 | More by AmandaSchaefer

Mullinger1980

Ohio

3.75/5 rDev -2.8%

05-11-2013 10:51:40 | More by Mullinger1980

rab53

Massachusetts

3.75/5 rDev -2.8%

04-18-2013 02:21:51 | More by rab53

Jimmys

Pennsylvania

3.63/5 rDev -6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.5

2011 Christmas Ale into Hardywood Park tulip.

A: a rich brownish, red hue. slightly hazed. foamy head is similar to the color of the body with a lot more white. retention is perfect. thick lacing left behind after each sip.

S: a little bit of molasses and spruce tips. a little bit of pine wood as well. sweet. unfermented sugars.

T: starts sweet a bit of plums. slightly woody as well. a little bit of cinnamon. lingering flavor is caramel malt flavor. a little bit of diacetyl in the finish.

M: moderate, tingly carb on a medium body.

D: cant get too pumped on this one. good, but nothing mind blowing. seems like time hasn't been too good to it either as I notice a bit of diacetyl that I think will get worse as time goes on.

Serving type: bottle

04-05-2013 03:27:34 | More by Jimmys