Why I Oughta...

We were over at Nat's folks house and (like they do EVERY YEAR), they had some Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale on hand ahead of the Christmas holidays.  I've posted photos and details of this ' Special Ale ' over the years here on the blog where the beer is less interesting to me, but the drawings of the trees are what I'm drawn to when it comes to this annual Christmas beer.  This year's beer is inspired by an Italian liqueur and features a drawing of a famous tree in San Francisco: a Blue Gum Eucalptus tree.  From this post on NewSchoolBeer comes this description of the tree on the label : This year’s hand-drawn label features a Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree, a nod to Mary Ellen Pleasant – a 19th-century San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, abolitionist, and civil rights activist. Pleasant, who is recognized as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California” for her impact during gold-rush San Francisco, planted Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees outside her Pacific Heights mans...

As is the tradition, Nat's family has secured a couple of six-packs of Anchor Brewing annual "Our Special Ale" - aka the Anchor Christmas Beer .  I've posted about this beer a number of times over the years, but my interest doesn't really lay in the subtleties of the flavors in the beer.  But, rather in the packaging - and in particular the trees that they feature on the bottle label and six-pack carrier.   The folks at Anchor Brewing typically put up a big holiday beer page each year, but I don't seem to be able find this year's version.  Here's the 2020 page and the full archive of the previous 46 labels over the years .  However, it seems that they've created a new Web experience at a new subdomain:   https://raiseanchor.anchorbrewing.com/ - which seems to totally omit any talk about the Christmas beer for this year and mostly celebrate a new packaging design. The Christmas beer page typically tells the story of the tree they selected, but sin...

 My brother-in-laws have a thing going on with the annual Anchor Steam Christmas Ale that comes out every year.  And I've posted a little bit about the bottles each year.   This year, the beer was billed as :  "New tree. New recipe. Same holiday tradition."  Nat's brother Charlie tells me that they have a new head brewer - hence the changes.  He also said that this year is heavier (is that the right term?) alcohol. But, I'm mostly interested in the label.  Here's a look - below - at one of the bottles that Nat's Dad bought and stored for her brothers when they can make it.  They have a beer from every year back a number of years in this fridge. Three trees.  That's kinda interesting.  Turns out, that's new.  From the 2020 page : This year’s label features The Three Graces; three iconic towering sequoias from the Mariposa Grove in California’s Yosemite National Park. This is only the second time in its 46-year history that multi...

On a trip over to the Home Depot, Nat wanted to stop at Binny's for a few things.  I stayed in the car with the kids and she went in and came out with some of this Anchor Steam Christmas Ale.  This six-pack is destined for Naperville and her two brothers who have both drank and collected this annual release over the years.  They're the real beer drinkers in the family - they know their stuff and have their preferences, so it is fun to see this little tradition come alive every year. I've posted these bottles over the years here on the blog. Here's the post from last year . Here's the post with the bottle from 2017 . Here's my post with the bottle fom 2016 . Here's the post with the bottle from 2015 . And here's the post with the bottle from 2010 . So this year marks the sixth year that I've posted photos of the bottles - and every year it features a tree from Northern California.   This year is the Western Arborvitae.   From the Anchor ...

Over the years, I've posted photos of the bottles of Anchor Brewing's Annual Christmas Ale here on the blog.  Nat's brothers are beer people and they've been seeking this stuff out every Christmas season for as long as I've been a part of it in Naperville.  So, when we arrive for Christmas Day there's always a few six packs of the annual Christmas beer in the basement fridge and every once in a while, there's even a magnum of the stuff.  This year's bottle struck me as different:  much more red in the label.  You can scroll through all the labels here on their site and see if you agree with me on the red.  1982 gives this year a run for its money in terms of the outer red band, but in terms of recent runs, this one clearly has the most red on it.  The tree on this year's label is a Korean Pine Tree.  From the Anchor Brewing site : For the 2018 release, Stitt created a brimming Korean Pine Tree for the label. Native to both North and South...

There are plenty of Christmas traditions that we participate in (trains, advent calendars, elfs, tree day, Walnut Room, etc), but there's also a beer tradition that I've grown to look forward to:  the opening of the annual Anchor Steam Christmas Ale as done by my brother-in-laws in Naperville. I've chronicled this in the past here on the blog.  Here's a post from last year's version .  Here's the 2015 version .  And here's a post from 2010 with that year's bottle .  And based on those posts, I've been drinking a little bit of this stuff for 10 years now, despite this only being the fourth version that I've documented on the blog here. As for this year's brew, they once again picked a unique tree for the label.  From the Anchor Steam site : This year’s tree is the Santa Lucia fir. Extremely rare, it is native and limited to California’s Santa Lucia Range along the central coast of California. They bought some smaller bottles like nor...

Behold, the hard-to-find 2016 Anchor Christmas Ale !  Nat's brothers are *really* into this stuff and they have a big to-do every Christmastime when one of them comes home from LA and the other one migrates to the Suburbs from the city.  And, I have to tell you...when it comes to traditions, this is one of the good ones! Each year, the fine folks at Anchor Steam come up with a new ale and tree on the label.  From their Christmas Ale page: It is sold only from early November to mid–January. The Ale's recipe is different every year—as is the tree on the label—but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew. With a heavily guarded, secret recipe, Christmas Ale is a highly anticipated seasonal delight, complex and full in flavor with a velvety texture and alluring, yet subtle, spiced aroma. I've covered ...

 I snapped this photo of the six-pack holder for this year's Christmas Ale from Anchor Brewing the folks who make Anchor Steam.  For 41 years, they've been making an annual Christmas Ale and packaging it up with a unique mix and a unique label featuring a different tree. I posted about the 2010 Ale here on the blog , but my brother-in-laws pick up the beer EVERY YEAR in both six packs but also - on occasion - one of those huge magnum bottles.   They keep one or two from each year and don't drink them so they can plan a 'vertical' session where they pass out little tasting portions of like five years of the beer to a group to note the differences from year-to-year.  If you look at that 2010 post, you'll note that the tree was a Ginko.  ( Here's a really well done catalog of all the trees they've used over the 41 years .)  I think one of Nat's brothers has a poster featuring all the labels.  Like I said...they're REALLY into this stuff - and f...

Each year, Anchor Brewing puts out a Christmas Ale .  This is the 36th version and each year the recipe changes a bit (although they keep it a secret!).  Thanks to the refined palate of my brother-in-law Charlie, this has become a mainstay at the Moran household during Christmas.  I don't drink all that much these days, but I always make room for a few of these - as a treat.  I *think* I've had the '07, '08, '09, and now the '10.  (ah....the aughts were fine years, weren't they?!?) Can't tell you much about the flavors and/or taste, but it certainly was effervescent.   The bottle, on the other hand, is quite handsome.  In fact, they change the tree on the label each year, but this year's tree has meaning for me!  It has a Ginko on it - and those of you who are loyal readers know that we planted a Ginko tree earlier this summer! Turns out, if you keep them over the years, the flavors age and the ales taste differently the longer you keep them. ...