31 Beers of December – Day 17: Anchor Brewing Our Special Ale
@AnchorBrewing @pairbeer
To celebrate the Holiday Season, we have teamed up with beer bloggers and craft beer enthusiasts around the country to host the fourth annual beer bloggers advent calendar. This is the season of sharing and we intend to share our love of beer with you.
During the 31 days of December, we will be sharing our favorite regional/winter seasonals/holiday beers with the help from our fellow beer bloggers. We hope that you tune in every day, to hear our stories and share our holiday cheer.
Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale
Blogger: Zach Rosen
Website: Beer Pairings & Beyond http://www.pairbeer.com
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: www.facebook.com/joohefner / @pairbeer / instagram.com/thebeerguylife
About Me: Zach Rosen is a Certified Cicerone, consultant, and event designer based out of Santa Barbara. Rosen uses his background in chemical engineering and the arts to seek out abstract expressions of beer; pairing it with movies, music, and many other conceptual counterparts. His blog, Beer Pairings & Beyond, explores his body of work and features different exotic beer pairings.
Beer: Our Special Ale
Brewery: Anchor Brewing Co. San Francisco, CA
Website: http://www.anchorbrewing.com
Twitter: @AnchorBrewing
Beer Details:
-Style: Winter Warmer
-ABV: 5.5% ABV
-Malt: Top Secret
-Hops: Top Secret
-Dry Hops: Top Secret
Commercial Description:
This is the fortieth annual Christmas Ale from the Anchor brewers. It is sold only 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 we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life.
Our tree for 2014 is the Giant Sequoia. It was hand-drawn by James Stitt–who has been creating Christmas Ale labels for us since 1975–to look as a “Big Tree” planted in 1975 might look today.
“The Big Tree is Nature’s forest masterpiece, and …keeps its youth far longer than any of its neighbors. Most silver firs are old in their second or third century, pines in their fourth or fifth, while the Big Tree growing beside them is still in the bloom of its youth, juvenile in every feature at the age of old pines, and cannot be said to attain anything like prime size and beauty before its fifteen hundredth year, or under favorable circumstances become old before its three thousandth.”–John Muir
We chose the Giant Sequoia for our fortieth Christmas Ale in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Act. Signed into law by President Lincoln during the Civil War, it granted the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the State of California “for public use, resort, and recreation.” The first such land grant in American history, it marked the beginning of the California State Parks.
Why I selected Our Special Ale:
Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale is the gift that can be unwrapped over and over…and who are we kidding…unwrapping gifts is one of the funnest parts of the holidays. This English-style brown ale receives a different dose of spices each winter. The recipe is kept secret every year which leaves beer-goers guessing as to what flavors they are unwrapping with each taste. Our Special Ale is an ongoing gift given to the beer world each year and worthy of decorating any holiday scene.
The beer pours a translucent brown with ruby highlights. The spices are a little more restrained than in previous editions. Different flavors come to light as the beer warms in the glass. Upon pouring there is a chocolate malt character laced with caramel notes. The malty aroma is accented by the allure of sweet orange peel and a soft sting of dried ginger. The flavors gain a dried fruitiness as the beer warms. The glass ends with a minty, pine-like aroma followed by a resiny character in the finish.
About Beer Pairings & Beyond:
Beer Pairings & Beyond is run by Zach Rosen, a Certified Cicerone (beer Sommelier), consultant, and event designer based out of Santa Barbara, CA. Rosen uses his background in chemical engineering and the arts to seek out abstract expressions of beer; pairing it with movies, music, and many other conceptual counterparts. This blog explores his body of work and features different exotic beer pairings.
About Anchor Brewing Co:
Many know the now-retired Fritz Maytag as one of the father’s of the craft beer movement. His influential Anchor Brewery in Northern San Francisco provided inspiration to many blossoming craft brewers and remains as a shining example of one of the only beer styles (California Common) to have originated in North America. In the 40th year of production, Fritz is also considered to have rekindled the tradition of holiday beers in America with his Our Special Ale.