Tag: Anchor Brewing

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Sean Suggests for January 2015

header_beer_shopping_listIf you think about, if you followed my beer buying advice, you would have purchased 36 really great beers.  But there are so many more out there.  Changing at such a rapid pace that even the most speedee drinker couldn’t catch them all.  So, let’s find more new ones on Southern California shelves.

~LIGHT

Perennial Artisan Ales/ Saison Lis 5.00% ABV

“A straw colored Belgian-style Saison brewed with chamomile flowers. It is fermented with a traditional saison yeast strain that imparts fruity and spicy notes that dovetail perfectly with the tea-like quality of the chamomile. Finishes dry, tart, and refreshing.”

~MEDIUM

Victory Brewing/ Moving Parts 2 6.40% ABV

“We like to mix it up. New flavors, new ideas, new ingredients; we welcome them all. In celebration of our penchant for prolific experimentation, we present Moving Parts: The Ever-Evolving IPA. Each release in this series (every four months) celebrates a tweaked ingredient or two, creating an endless array of possible flavor profiles. For us, Moving Parts are a good thing!”

~DARK

Anchor Brewing/ Zymaster No. 7  7.00% ABV

“Portrero Hill Sour-Mash IPA. The mash is sour but the beer is not. Instead, the sour mash we blend with our regular mash results in this IPA’s unique piquancy. The dry tartness from the sour mash, the bitterness from the Nelson Sauvin hops, and the subtle spiciness from the rye meld to create a singular, thirst-quenching IPA with a clean, crisp finish. Dry-hopping with Nelson Sauvin adds tropical complexity with notes of grapefruit, mandarin orange, and passion fruit. “

 

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Review – Our Special Ale 2014 from Anchor Brewing

Up from the Cellar for December will be focusing on multiple vintages of the Anchor Christmas beer. We have arrived at the present day like some Dickensian character.

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(You can check out last years review HERE)

2014 The new vintage is fairly plain compared with the past. No big spruce or pine notes to it. Not much hops either. It is a simple beer. More liquid bread and in line with a British winter warmer than anything else. It is pretty thick to me. There is almost a fruitcake without the fruit thing going on here. A bit of toffee notes for me as well. Decent. It won’t stop me from buying the 2015 version. But I wish it was more spicy with spruce. It is simply missing something.

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Up From the Cellar – Christmas Ale from Anchor (2012-2013)

Up from the Cellar for December will be focusing on multiple vintages of the Anchor Christmas beer. I will be covering the years 2008-2014.

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(You can check out last years review HERE)

2012 pours a dark brown color. There is a caramels sweetness here with an almost cola like sweetness. Getting a toasted bread type of note in the background too. A hint of the cherry note is underneath there lurking. But this year has held up nicely.

2013 The tree, pine, spruce notes are back! Good amount of spice and the cherry notes are gone! The cola note is in the back as well. Still lively as well. Good amount of bubbles which really helps the beer. Nice espresso foam lacing as well. Way in the back are some leafy hop notes too.

OK, I am changing the rules. 2012-13 are the winners. I will compare them to the latest incarnation. Previous to 2012, Our Special ale is just too cherry and slightly tangy to really recommend.

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Up From the Cellar – Christmas Ale from Anchor (2010-2011)

Up from the Cellar for December will be focusing on multiple vintages of the Anchor Christmas beer. I will be covering the years 2008-2014. Today’s post goes back to 2010 and 2011.

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(You can check out last years review HERE)

2010 This one tastes much like a regular, current year offering would taste like. Though there is a creeping set of flavors that remind me of the 2008 version. Tartness. Cherry like notes. But right now they are at bay and the malt is nice and there is a bit of bitterness to it still.

2011 Finally a beer without a red tint!  The progression from year to year shows a marked growth from too sour-ish cherry back to the holiday themed taste that I am used to. But they are all of a piece. And flavors that are foreground in older vintages are bit players in later years. There is even a bit of chocolate notes in 2011. 2009 is such an outlier in comparison.

My winner though is the 2010. There is simply more hop bite here that covers the ferric fruit tang that is super prevalent in 2008 and still there in 2011.

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Up From the Cellar – Christmas Ale from Anchor (2008-2009)

Up from the Cellar for December will be focusing on multiple vintages of the Anchor Christmas beer.  I will be covering the years 2008-2014. And choosing a winner like college football does.  Via a biased playoff.

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(You can check out last years mega-review HERE)

2008 pours a near reddish color this year.  The first whiff upon popping the cap is of Oud Bruin and cherry but as the beer warms up that fades off like the head diminishes.  There is a decidedly fruit taste to this beer.  Fruit punch primarily.  Strawberry would be my next guess.  It doesn’t taste bad per se but it is certainly more fruitcake and dried fruit than anything else.

2009 has a more pleasing aroma to it.  Good start.  And it is so different from the ’08.  Cinnamon red hot flavor hits me first.  Never had that in a beer before.  That initial taste fades a skosh and the beer starts to taste better as it warms.  There is a nice rich, full taste to this with what seems to be a darker malt bill to it.

It is kinda hard to pick a winner to move on to the next round against the victor of 2010 vs. 2011.  The oldest and last bottle of the Our Special Ale had faded too much for me though it was offensive.  So I have to pick the 2009, though the spice profile makes it an underdog for the next round.

 

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Sour in Name Only

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Before you tuck into the 2014 Christmas Ale from Anchor Brewing.  How about you test this intriguing beer experiment? They are tapping their distillery arm for their rye sour mash blending it with a regular mash recipe and they end up, “creating a unique piquancy.”

Thus they can have a tart but not sour base for their 7th Zymaster beer that they add the English Ale yeast to plus a mere four additions of the much loved Nelson Sauvin hop from New Zealand.

Can tartness and the grape qualities of the hop co-exist.  I will be trying it for sure.

 

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Review – Anchor Zymaster No. 6

The subtitle for this San Francisco treat is Saaremaa Island Ale and thanks to a fortuitous vacation by Anchor brewmaster Mark Carpenter we get to try an Estonian inflected ale.

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Carpenter got some of the Estonian yeast back from the island and melded it to a pale ale to create this hybrid beer. It has some tripel notes to it such as vanilla as well as hefe notes with a clove spice character and it also really sticks to the palate and becomes a bit viscous.

It pours a very bright and clear orange. And frankly, I am of two minds about this beer. I like the complexity here. I believe two different beer fans would pick out different flavor and aroma notes. But the end taste of stickiness with a dose of toasty malt notes doesn’t quite tie this beer up with a bow. I have had a few beers like this lately that start out great but then turn in a direction that I am not fond of.

As an FYI, the top selling beers are from Saku (a local owned by larger interests) and A. Le Coq a Finnish brewery. Certainly a place due for some craft infusions.

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Canned for Parks

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Anchor Brewing Company is putting it’s 4.9% California Lager into cans and “through two unique partnerships, a portion of proceeds from Anchor California Lager sales will support the National Parks Conservation Association.”

According to the press release heralding the new packaging, we her in Californiahave 280 state parks and 26 of America’s 401 national parks in which to get in touch with nature.

Beginning this month, Anchor California Lager “will also be available in 6-pack cans both nationally and year-round..”

I didn’t like that the Bock beer was stopped but between the lager and new saison and this initiative.  I think the new owners at Anchor are doing things right.

 

 

 

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Anchor IPA

When I heard that Anchor Brewing was stopping their bock, I was a bit miffed.  Certain styles in the U.S. were being phased out it appeared.  Anchor had done such a good job adding a lager to their line-up that I felt a step had been taken backward.

That worry was amplified by what appears to be the replacement, another IPA.  I certainly hope it is good.  I will try it but I wish they could do it and the bock ½ and 1/2.

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Here is how Jay Brooks at the Brookston Beer Bulletin, described the new beer, “Anchor IPA is brewed with six different hops, including Apollo, Bravo and Cascade for bittering, and the five used in dry-hopping are Apollo, Cascade, an experimental hop still know as 431, Nelson Sauvin and Citra.”