Monday, January 26, 2015

It isn't Christmas any more but...

It's never too late to drink Christmas beer. Even with it now coming up to the end of January. The bitter chill outside justifies sitting in a warm pub/bar or whatever, preferably by a log fire, drinking a rich, dark and mildly spiced beer.

If anybody tells you that it's wrong to still be drinking seasonal Christmas beers, they are kind of right to but...
… but if the beers were released as a 'spiced ale' or something along those lines then there would be no problem. One could even consume such a beverage all year round if you had such a liking for them.

The particular beer of concern is the Anchor Breweries 'Christmas Ale'. It is what we would consider in England to be a fairly traditional 'Winter Warmer' style beer. It is rich, dark, incredibly complex, spicy and enough alcohol to subdue a Shetland pony. I feel guilty about not having had any of this for or before Christmas. It is really really good.

The other day, during a conversation about beer, craft beers from the United States in particular, I was informed of some brief and interesting information about the Anchor Brewery out of San Fransico, USA. It is one of America's oldest breweries and was apparently one of the only ones to survive the stupid thing that was the Prohibition. They helped pave the way for the 1980's 'Craft Beer' boom along with other breweries like Sierra Nevada. They're still going strong to this day and have many beers like the Porter and this Christmas Ale.


The 40th anniversary seasonal ale was and is delicious, bring on next years batch.

Check em out, they're bloody good.

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