A Place to Gather and Talk
Oh, God: if I answer this wrong David Houseman might excommunicate me from the church of the holy beer judges: the BJCP. Would Mike Dixon prematurely desecrate my grave? Gordon Strong stop taking my obscene phone calls? (And he enjoyed them SO much.)
But I must ask, “Is balance over rated?†Like when the winter slumber-er who hibernates is rudely awaken, don’t bite my digital head off yet… bear… with me.
I am so disappointed,and not just with this.Last Anchor I got was Foghorn and each and every bottle’s contents were phenol-laced: rubber hose. This quaff might be called phenolic too, but I actually think the balance may be off: ginger and/or clove in a fairly light old ale base that’snot all that “old.”
Not sure aging would help.
I believe it to be ginger and reminds me of ginger ale with a dark color. it could almost be food coloring as much as it contributes to taste. High side medium carbonation with a definite carbonic bite.
Deep tan pillow head, black as hell with some deep red highlights peeking through, this has alight aroma of spices.
We bought a magnum for Christmas and had so much it became somewhat annoying. We usedhalf of it for cooking. We have better quaffs we have brewed ourselves. A simplistic quaff for a season that cries out for fireplace sipping complexity.
3.84 on BA,
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I know I haven’t written to you in a few years…well, okay, quite a few years. Oh, alright, the last time was during the Eisenhower administration. Whatever. The point is, I apologize.
It wasn’t because I forgot you or that I ever doubted. When I was lying in bed, my daughter’s head resting on my arm, trying to get her to go to sleep because, “Hey, Santa won’t come if you’re awake!”, I wasn’t thinking that it was going to be me drinking up that God-awful Kroger store-brand egg nog. I was telling her what was in my heart. And, besides, I knew my wife would suck it up and drink the egg nog, if I bitched long enough. And cut it 50/50 with brandy.
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Black as hell amber head/lite brown pillow with a few big bubbles. The nose has a hint of coffee, some lactose sense and darker malts. The flavor is caramel mixed with dark chocolate. Hops not noticed except a slight bitter in the background. Coffee also dominants, but not out of balance. Medium body. Tad dry but some residual sweet too! Quite the dance, a well performed brew-based ballet. Low carbonation in the mouthfeel, but firm. This was rates very high everywhere I looked. Rate Beer had it at 100 twice!
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Winter means holidays, and holidays mean gifts. Gifts are always welcome — especially gifts of beer.
Well before visions of gingerbread cookies and sugar plums dance in our heads, breweries have the season’s flavors in mind. Brewers anticipate the season like a white Christmas; in Rhode Island, Newport Storm Brewery was busy fermenting for three months to craft its annual release — for the 17th year. In San Francisco, Anchor Brewing’s Christmas Ale, a new recipe each year, is officially the brewery’s 43rd Christmas beer on the wall.
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