Day 25 of the 7th Annual Holiday Beer Advent-ure Calendar
Day 25: Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale
The time has come for the calendar to end and we could not end on a better note. Anchor Brewing is such a classic Christmas Ale, rich with history. This year’s description: “This is the forty-seventh Our Special Ale from the brewers at Anchor. This ale, made with natural flavors, features a new recipe & tree every year, but the intent with which we offer it is the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Trees symbolize the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew, the natural beauty of the California high desert is epitomized by the western Joshua tree. Threatened primarily by climate change, it is a candidate for the protection under the California Endangered Species Act.”
Reflections
Ben: Ahhh, one of the beers I look forward to every year. Since it changes each year, it’s always kind of a crap shoot if I’m gonna like it, but I generally do since Anchor’s such a solid brewery. This year though, not a huge fan. It’s darker than years past, and has an almost burnt character to it from the roasty malts. It’s fine enough, and I’ll finish it, but I won’t seek out an entire six pack.
Final thoughts: Lots of new beers this year! Seemed like a solid variety, but quite a few IPAs, which I enjoy for a change of pace. “Best of show” beers for me include the Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA (which is always one of my favorites), the Rogue Kringle Krusher, Fat Head’s Pimp My Sleigh (another regular favorite), and Bell’s Scotch Ale. So, I basically gravitated towards the classics and was impressed by a newcomer. The group did real solid with finding some winners! The fruit beers were all pretty weird, but that kind of comes with the territory with those. All in all, two thumbs up, great holiday fun!
Julia: This is usually my favorite Christmas beer every year. I’m always a little nervous to try it since the recipe changes every year. It’s especially dark this season. It’s rich, malty and a little dry. I don’t love it. I enjoyed it previously when it was a little lighter and a little less malty. I don’t get too many of the Christmas spices. Overall it’s ok, but this is definitely not my favorite recipe.
Final thoughts: Cheers to another great season! This year we had a lot of IPAs, which is not necessarily a bad thing because I enjoy the variety. Stand outs included Goose Island IPA, Fistmas and Brewdog Hoppy Christmas. I was seriously impressed by Unplugged Breweries offerings and can’t wait to try more by them. I would have liked to have had more basic Christmas ales on the list. Maybe next year we can add some more parameters to the beers like only spiced beers or back to only Ohio beers. Next year, I would also like to get together with our group and drink some of the beers together, covid obviously made that a little difficult.
Scott: The Anchor Brewing holiday beer is an awesome holiday tradition for this group, as every year seems to be a whole new recipe. This years batch is pretty good, with more muted flavors but well balanced. It’s a little bitter on the aftertaste, but that’s the fun of a beer like this, you want to look for the nuance, both good and bad.
Final thoughts: This year’s collection is probably the best yet for the number of memorable, delicious holiday beers. It seemed to be more IPA-heavy this year, which I was definitely happy about. The Unplugged beers were excellent and a welcome addition to the rotation, and except for the non alcoholic and cherry cough syrup bomb beers, I have little complaints. Looking forward to 2022!
Christa: I have always loved this one. Anchor Brewing knows how to deliver a traditional, but memorable holiday ale. It’s sweet with the right amount of spice, though for this particular batch I would have done a little less ginger. What a great one to end on because it’s never a disappointment and one I’ll always look forward to. Cheers to 2021’s Adventure!
Final thoughts: Another year has passed and the adventure has come to an end. Midway through I always get a little burnt out on the holiday beers but that wasn’t the case this year because we had so many unique contenders! As an IPA fan, I’ve really enjoyed all the new ones I got to try. I was excited to bring some of my hometown to the mix and am so grateful for our friends for being game to try anything. I have to say Braxton’s Jubilee Hoppy Holiday was my favorite this year but I will be glad to never have a Cherry Chouffe ever again. I’m so glad to be a part of this, it’s become a tradition and one that seen us through several phases in our lives. Cheers to Ben and Julia for coordinating this and including us. It’s always an adventure and I can’t wait for the next one.
Tony: The appropriately placed Anchor Brewing has anchored the calendar the last few years and for good reason. The delightfully dark pour leads the way to a caramel color head and flavors of cocoa, spice and maybe a hint of smokiness, or as they describe it “toasted marshmallow”, create a smooth, well-rounded beer. Its really well done, delicious, and always a great way to end the calendar. Merry Christmas! Cheers! 🍻
Final thoughts: In terms of the calendar itself, it was another great experience. Whats so fun about it is getting exposed to new breweries and learning more about the different styles of beer. This year we had a lot of Belgian style beers so we got a chance to compare those and start to notice the different nuances between beers of the same style. I honestly feel like my palate improves each year and I can start to pick up on some of the more subtle flavors that I might not have before. I can then take that knowledge into the next year and explore more beers that have similar characteristics. It might be fun to add a rating system like a 5 star rating or 5 mug rating and then at the end it would be cool to list out the highest rated beers among the group. A couple of new favorite beers this year were 50 West X-Mas Cookie, Wolfs Ridge Holiday Ale, and then for style points alone we can’t forget Rogue Brewing’s epic can design for the Kringle Krusher. Anyway, great time as always, thank you to BearandBroad for organizing such a fun tradition and Merry Christmas all! 🍻🎄
Megan: We did it, we made it to another finale of the Christmas beer advent-ure! I remember this beer as a finale in years prior and it doesn’t disappoint this year either. It’s a great note to end the season. I love this one because you really get the coffee and chocolate probably more than any other beer on the list. It is a dark pour with a beautiful hazel foam and the can design is tres classy. It pairs well with a plate full of cookies at the end of long and beautiful Christmas day.
Final thoughts: I enjoy getting introduced to new beers every year so I really look forward to the beer calendar. This year was a little different for me but I felt like since I couldn’t rely on taste, my sense of smell really picked up on a lot and it was fun to see how my assumptions were or were not in line with everyone else’s reviews. Hats off to beard and broad for hosting another year!
Favorites this year include:
Sierra Nevada – Celebration Fresh Hop IPA
Dubuisson – Scaldis Noel
Unplugged Brewing – Crackling Embers
Christmas cookies winter warmer
Dislikes include:
Cherry Chouffe
Braxton Brewing Co – Jubilee
Brooklyn – Sledders Choice
Best can design goes to Rogue Kringle Crusher
Brad: I love Anchor and am always excited to see what happy little tree is on the bottle each year as well as taste the new recipe. The Joshua Tree drawing is very simple, yet cool. The beer pours very dark and smells like your typical boozy holiday Porter. It seems bitter this year, which I enjoyed more halfway through the bottle. I don’t remember last years being so boozy but I’m enjoying it. I am happy to say this is my first Christmas alcohol today and won’t be my last.
Final thoughts: I always have fun with this beer advent-ure! I’m very thankful there were no Abita beers or Mad Elf, although there was a cherry flavored beer which still sucked. All in all, it seemed there were a lot of IPAs and 16 oz beers this year. I’m not mad about the IPAs but could do without so many large heavy beers. That said, I’m looking forward to next year already. Last year, when we were all quarantined and not going out due to Covid, I suggested that a fun option would be “maybe next year we can plan a night or two out in December and drink 1-5 Advent Beers on draft at a local bar or brewery.” I think this should happen in 2022. Also, since there were very few Cleveland staples on this year’s calendar like Great Lakes and Thirsty Dog, maybe we can enjoy those next time. Also, we need at least one pickle beer. Until next year….
Heather: A deep dark pour to finish up this year’s Advent-ure, and it wraps around your tongue like a Christmas kiss under the mistletoe. Anchor (fittingly) is always our last brew of the year, and I’m so glad for that because it’s almost always in my top 5. This year is another winner for me. The flavor is a crisp blend of spices and maybe a bit nutty? I don’t know and I didn’t cheat and look it up this time, but whatever this year’s recipe, it balances really well. The hand-drawn Joshua Tree for this year’s bottle art is beautiful, and I’d drink it With or Without You.
Final thoughts: We made it through another year of drinking beer every day! It’s sometimes tough, but worth it to try all the new brews. There are just so many out there that we don’t typically buy. I loved that we tried an NA beer, even though it wasn’t the best. I would like to see a few other random surprises in the mix next year — I seem to remember some bizarre flavors and such last year (pickles, right?), and I’m always down for weird shit. We’ve got a kid with Celiac and are experimenting with gluten free lately, so maybe we’ll subject people to that next year. This year seemed heavy on the big beers, major spice bombs, and lots of hoppy bitter ones, but that could just be my over-sensitive tastebuds. Thanks, Ben and Julia, for the fun, as always!