Anchor’s Christmas Ale Vertical Tasting
Every year, Anchor releases their Special Christmas Ale, and every year, it’s just a bit different. The spices, the beer recipe, and the tree on the label all vary, making each a unique snowflake. I think this sort of experimentation is great – and it makes for a particularly exciting vertical tasting. Jeff, a member of the BABC, is especially dedicated to collecting a bottle from each year, and at the home brew Christmas party, decided to go all out with a vertical tasting of Anchor Christmas Beers from 1993 through 2008. He carefully assembled the lineup before we starting cracking bottles.
Many, many bottles of Christmas Ale were poured. We stopped, we took a break, took pictures, drank other beers, then steeled our reserve and drank more Christmas Ale. It was rough going, but we persevered, all the way through to a magnum of 2008. I’m a particular fan of their year’s brew. The base beer is dark and rich and an ideal winter warmer. The spices are present without being overpowering with e hint of spiciness that says “it’s the holidays” without being one note.
So how was it? I know I may ruffle a few feathers, but I was a bit disappointed. Everything that had over 10 years of age on it, just tasted old to me. The spices had faded to nearly nothing, and the beer seemed to take on a slightly chalky mouth feel (a hint of oxidation maybe?) This isn’t a beer that’s bottles with live yeast in the bottle, and I just don’t think it’s high enough alcohol to survive this sort of aging process. As we got into the newer years, the flavors became more pronounced, and the freshness becomes apparent. Don’t get me wrong, it still is a great beer, and a better seasonal tradition. But since every year is subtly changed, age acts as a great steamroller, flattening all the flavor together. Even years that we handed to be and I was told “this was a great year!” tasty pretty much the same as the years before and after it. Palate fatigue quickly set in, and I couldn’t help but think that to my tongue, the every year that we inched towards the fresh bottle, it got better and better.
I love aging beers, and I think vertical tastings are alway exciting to compare years and the effect of age on the beer. But in this case, the age became a study in homogenizing effects of time, and the best parts of Anchor’s Christmas Ale got left along the way.
Now if someone wants to compare different ages of Old Foghorn with Maytag Blue, I’m onboard.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
90% sorry/10% relieved to hear that.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I started drinking the OSA back in the 80’s when they weren’t all Porter based Spiced beers. I loved the diversity back then! THEN, The spiced beers started…. At first, they were good and I looked forward to each year. Then, they became very predictable with just various types and amounts of spices. The Spruce was nice at times!
By about 2000, I would buy ONE bottle every year. By 2004, I stopped.
For a Holiday Beer, it’s a nice beer, but became painful to drink a pint. (for me)
I’ve done the linear tasting of OSA. I remember Jeff buying like 8 cases of of linear years. I guess those cases are still being utilized! Yes, it’s was rather disappointing. The tasting seemed to go from oxidized and sours notes to Dry and Mellow versions to fresh, not a lot excitement….. ;-} The OSA beers seem to mellow and dry out, period. The spices fall into the background.
That said, I DID have a 2008! I bought one bottle! My evaluation…. Deja Vue! ;-}
December 19th, 2008 at 5:40 am
I too am a big fan of ye old Christmas ale from Anchor … love the spices and I could swear I taste bay leaf in there ? But I’m curious as to how the beer was stored and also does “mass produced” beer really store well ?? I know these are comparatively small batches but don’t they need the full on cork covered by a cap (like a lambic or something) for proper storage ?? -Cheers
P.S. Yes, I’m jealous of this tasting !!
December 20th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Brain,
Check out my blog for a current post of Cellaring beers.
Basically, Cellaring comes down to yeast in the bottle and a high enough gravity. Cap vs cork vs cap/cork? Fairly redundant. Temperature always matters…. ;-}
In regard to Anchor….. As the British would say, ‘The beer is dead in the bottle.’ It has no yeast in the bottle and does not have enough alcohol to be a cellaring candidate. A couple years at best to dry out flavors…
Don’t jealous of the tasting….. You’re REALLY not missing much….. Very UNDER-whelming.
http://wortblog.blogspot.com/
January 1st, 2009 at 3:22 pm
wow – this seems like heaven but you make some good points. Bottling and Ageing are artforms in themselves, and some things just dont work. Interesting viewpoint.