Anchor Our Special Ale 2012
Anchor Our Special Ale 2012
Rated 3.650 by BeerPals
Brewed by Anchor Brewing Company
San Francisco, CA, United States
Style: Spiced Beer
5.5% Alcohol by Volume
Availability of this beer is unknown
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Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale For thirty-eight years, Christmas Ale has been handcrafted at our historical brewery in San Francisco and each of the trees featured on our labels have been hand drawn by a local artist. A rich, dark spiced ale, Anchor’s Christmas Ale is the perfect holiday beer, and is available nationally on draught, in six packs, and magnums (1.5L). A magnum of Christmas Ale transforms an evening into a celebration and makes a unique host gift or stocking stuffer for beer lovers. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the year, with its seasons, appears born anew. For this year’s Christmas Ale, we have selected the Norfolk Island pine. Captain Cook discovered this South Seas isle and its native tree in 1774. These tropical-looking conifers, which thrive in sandy soil and coastal climes, were first planted in California in the 1850s. The Norfolk Island pine on this year’s label, hand drawn from life, resides in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
ID: 50094 Last updated 1 month ago Added to database 12 years agoKey Stats
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Drunk5
Reviews0
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Statistics
| Overall Rank | 1428 |
| Overall Percentile | 97.5 |
| Style Rank | 23 of 1288 |
| Style Percentile | 98.2 |
| Lowest Score | 3.6 |
| Highest Score | 4.3 |
| Average Score | 4.040 |
| Weighted Score | 3.650 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.270 |
Rating Distribution
Beer vs Style
5 Member Reviews
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Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8
Sampled on 12/25/2012. This spice ale pours a medium to deep brown color from a 12oz bottle. Large to medium sized off white foamy head with good retention and nice lacing. The aroma is caramel, fruity and sweet, with some orange peel and chocolate along with the assorted spices. A medium bodied Christmas ale. The malts are caramel, fruity and sweet, with some chocolate. The hops are earthy and herbal. Nice carbonation. This years version seems a little more chocolate and orange peel, along with the allspice and nutmeg. I like this version, it’s a little alter in the year than I have usually sampled this beer, so I wonder if some bottle aging/conditioning is coming into plat here, but this one is nice. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.
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Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9
This years San Fran Christmas treat has the usual appearances. Flavor and scent wise, we are in that realm of chocolate. Don't know why, but I was detecting hints of chocolate in this years suds blending in nicely with the spices and chewy dried dark fruit notes (prunes?) that make Anchor 2012 Christmas brew what it is. As usual, the nice warming finish is most welcome now that the miserable weather is here. Anchor, you once again surpassed yourself. Thanks for being there every year!
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Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7
A brown red tinged colored beer with a big foamy textured light beige colored beer I'd picked up at World of Beer tonight. THe hang time is lengthy. Settles into an imprtessive ringlet. Light allspice and cinnamon flavoring with grassy notes. Quite good.
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Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8
Bottled (2012 vintage, from Alko, as MC & HNY 2012). Very deep rubyish black colour with a nice creamy beige head. Aroma is spices, some ripe fruits, mild toffee, plum and mild toasted notes. Flavour is ripe fruits, some toffee, mild bitter floral notes as well as some slight spicyness.
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Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9
Another year, another beautiful Christmas beer from Anchor! Deep red hued brown. Aroma of Christmas tree in a bottle, like usual, with some orange peel and maybe a little extra ginger in the flavor this year. Honestly, the differences year to year have generally been less than that of other annual releases that are supposedly the same recipe. Anyway, awesome brew as always. Don't know how they do the dark color and very unique dark malt flavor (molasses?) here. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when this is brewed - nobody makes anything like this.
