Why We Picked It: Another regular member of 24DOB and a forefather of microbrews and holiday microbrews. Also, each year, the recipe changes just a bit.
What Anchor Steam Says About It: "Slightly darker than last year’s Christmas Ale, the 2019 edition is layered with toasted caramel and coffee flavors with subtle hints of Mexican chocolate, rounded out with herbaceous spices. Crack open a bottle for a spiced whiff of western evergreens, roasted malts, and coastal flowers. It’s a rich, round and full bodied-treat with a silky, smooth finish. As each Christmas Ale recipe evolves, so does its hand-drawn packaging, created by long-time Anchor Illustrator Jim Stitt, who has created Anchor’s Christmas Ale labels every year since 1975. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew. This year, Stitt illustrated the Western Arborvitae – the “tree of life” – across the label. It is an evergreen conifer native to Northern California, the same region that Anchor has called home for over 123 years. Before modern medicine, properties of Western Arborvitae leaves were believed to have healing properties – hence, the moniker “tree of life.” 2019 Anchor Christmas Ale proudly wears this tree and symbolizes the start of a strong, healthy beginning."
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 40
Fun Facts: "Our annual Christmas Ale is a subtly spiced and sumptuously smooth winter warmer. This year’s brew marks the 45th annual release of this Anchor holiday tradition. Back in 1975, Anchor released the first holiday beer in America since Prohibition. Year after year, Anchor creates a new, secret recipe with a unique hand drawn label for their Christmas Ale, but the intent with each brew remains the same: joy for the changing seasons and celebration of the newness of life. With a heavily guarded, confidential recipe, Christmas Ale is sold only from early November to mid-January. This highly anticipated seasonal delight is complex and full in flavor, packed with toasty cocoa notes, roasted malts and strong aromas of resinous pine."
Fun Facts:
Based on the Brewers description, this sounds very busy. Can't wait to try this afternoon
ReplyDeleteStarting early because I'm heading out soon and wouldn't get a chance to try it later.
ReplyDeleteSo... as I predicted, a lot going on here. Is it a beer? Is it a port? is it flavored alcohol? I guess a little bit of everything.
Personally, I would not call this a beer. I respect the efforts these brewers put into creating new flavors and experimenting, keep it up. Bu this is way too much. Maybe the saying "keep it simple" should also be something to consider.
NOW, with all that said, this is not the worst "beer" I've had. If you handed me one down the road, yeah, I'd probably drink it. Just don't call it beer.
Anyway. This has been a really fun journey. with just one more day to go, I'm almost saddened. I am looking forward to tomorrows choice. the 11% kinda scares me, but I'll get through it.
As the posts have been dwindling, I'll take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated and made my first 24DOB memorable.
Happy Holidays everyone. May you be safe during these holidays and may 2020 be prosperous and full of joy and happiness.
Happy Holidays Theodore! And thank you for being such an excellent 24DOBer!!!
DeleteAs may have already become apparent, I generally like holiday beers. However, that is a wide umbrella with lots of different flavors and styles. Some are better than others. This year's Christmas Ale is right up there with my favorites and reaching the status of Southern Tier 2Xmas and Mad Elf. It may even surpass Celebration (gasp!!).
ReplyDeleteThis has all the hallmarks of a good holiday beer with spiciness, but it is rounded off with the very subtle coffee and chocolate (that has overwhlemed some of our earlier brews). The result is a nice well rounded, drinkable beer with lots of interesting flavors. I may go buy a six pack of this one. 4 out of 4 beer-themed ornaments.
To say this is better than Celebration Ale during this season is the kind of blasphemy that would have had you burned at the stake in olden times.
DeletePart of it is I like this recipe. The other is I really thought it was a down year for Celebration.
DeleteI swore we got this every year but apparently we didn't the last two years. But I've got 5 years of data to compare it to before that. As I noted in my untappd checkin, I think the Anchor Christmas needs to be ranked every year on a continuum of undrinkable to tolerable with tolerable being the 2014 which actually was half decent. Unfortunately this is more of a 4. I mean 2012 was a pinecone and this is better than that. And the last one I checked in was the 2016 which I compared to motor oil. This is closer to that one. It's got some obnoxious pine, but the main problem is it's just way, way too thick. It's not malt, it's sludge. I need a juicy IPA as a chaser. The toasted marshmallow hot chocolate bourbon drink I had at the holiday and Nationals pop-up bar last night was smoother than this. I'm just glad we get one of these every year to keep me from being tempted to buy a sixer to see if this year's version is better. And this is the 45th version of this? I must say I am aging better into my late forties better than this beer. 1.5 out of 5 Uncle Bucks (it's the name of our Christmas tree this year and don't ask).
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a record of this on Untappd but my impression is that this year’s is better than the ones I had in the Before Times. Also those earlier bottles were bigger.
ReplyDeleteI am just not a holiday-spiced beer fan, it turns out. I thought I might like this one, but nope. I've been drinking it for what seems like 2 hours. (Spoiler alert, it doesn't age well.) And I just finally drank the last sip, now time to go pack...happy Christmas eve eve!
ReplyDeleteOutstanding holiday beer. Not overwhelming with the spices at all. Great malt profile and flavor. Probably my favorite of the style
ReplyDelete[completely disregarding Bills literary diarrhea]. I liked this. Just back from overseas holidays. Sorry I wasnt around to journey thru all 24 with you all, but I am catching up as I can. I like this. Actually I have liked Anchor since my first encounter in 1999 - call me biased, but the whole thing about all this subjective: upon which of course is more than taste. Its ambiance, memories, Ratatouille etc...
ReplyDeleteWhat I love most about the 24 DOB is that it is so subjective. [I was thinking of writing a modest statement, but what the hell: Its only once a year!!!!]
My guess is Bill doesnt get subtletly at all.
On my soap box moreover: All those that think Celebration is the benchmark should get a life