Dec 30, 2008

Anchor Our Special Ale 2006-2008 Tasting

The Barley Blog turned two at the beginning of this December, marking my foray into documenting my love of craft beer — or rather, just beer in general. This month also marks my first tentative steps into cellaring beer. One of the first brews that I put into the basement was a six pack of Anchor’s Our Special Ale.

I still have a few bottles left of that original deposit into the basement’s back corner and felt it would be fun to do a small tasting of the beer, sampling from the past three years of the brew. Each year has a slight twist on the recipe, but still remains very much in line with the legacy of the seasonal treat.

With one bottle from each year poured into a brandy snifter, I went about my mini vertical tasting. (Note to self: start taking pictures of this stuff for the site. Seriously.)

Anchor Our Special Ale 2006-2008

First up is the 2006 vintage. Let’s see how it has fared so far.

Appearance

The two year old bottle from 2006 poured a muddy, slightly opaque brown. It had a large medium tan head and some fine sediment suspended in the glass.

Aroma

This one has an earthy nose with a slight booziness to it. Dark fruits (fig, plum) and a subtle spice presence are there, as well.

Taste

The spices come out much more in the taste than they did in the aroma. The 2006 has an earthy character to it, probably due to the spice and malt combination, as well as a lovely piney presence that’s an added bonus. The malt is also a bit more in the foreground. The beer has thickened a bit over time, but is far from syrupy.

Overall

Two years has changed this one quite a bit. I loved the earthiness to it, but wished the spices had retained more oomph through it’s cellaring. There’s just something to it that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes this a damned tasty vintage.

Rating: 3.5/5

Next up was a 2007 vintage of the brew. I still have, or rather had, a full six pack of this one left, and so far all signs point to it aging wonderfully.

Appearance

The 2007 poured slightly more opaque than the ’06 had. It still looks very similar to how I remember it. A large fluffy head faded slowly.

Aroma

The aroma on this one was a bit more subdued. There was a nice orange zest presence (curacao, perhaps) and other spiced like nutmeg and cinnamon were also present.

Taste

Wow, this one tasted killer. While obviously not fresh, it did have a more bright palette of flavors than the ’06. Subtle spices, malt and light citrus notes work well together on this one and haven’t faded much through the last year. The mouthfeel is still relatively crisp, but not quite as lively.

Overall

All signs point to this one aging nicely. Everything is still well balanced and equally weighted as the beer ages. The spices, orange zest and emerging malt presence made this one the favorite of the bunch.

Rating: 4/5

And finally, the 2008 was up next. I still have 18 bottles remaining from the case of this one that I purchased early in the month. I’m planning on trying to keep around more than just a six pack like I did with the previous years’ vintages.

Appearance

The ’08 poured the clearest of the three. It’s still got a lovely brown color, but with a lively garnet edge to the glass. It had a bright, light tan head.

Aroma

Being the freshest, this one had the larger spice hit to the nose than the older bottles. You can definitely see the progressive fading of the spices as the beer ages during this tasting.

Taste

This one was much more lively in terms of carbonation (not that the other two were flat by any means) and managed to have more of a crisper bite to it. The spices aren’t quite as upfront as the other two when they were fresh and has a more dominant citrus presence. It has a smooth finish that lingers nicely.

Overall

Obviously the characteristics of this one are the brightest and liveliest of the three I sampled since it was the youngest. I’m hoping that it ages as well as the other two have.

Rating: 3.5/5

So far, the ’07 is turning out to be my favorite of the bunch. After a year it still has plenty of liveliness to it but also has a more matured array of flavors to it. I can’t wait to see what another year does for each of them (assuming the all last that long). The booziness that came out in the ’06 is a surprise as it wasn’t any higher in ABV than the later vintages.

Cheers.

More: , , ,