Beer Advent Calendar Window Three - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015

Perhaps one of the most internationally famous Christmas beers, Anchor Brewery’s Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year enters its 41^st incarnation this year. With a changing recipe each year – and a different tree design on the bottle – it is one for long standing beer enthusiasts to buy to store.

The tree of choice on the label this year is the Deador Cedar that is actually local to the brewery in San Francisco. Everything about this beer’s lovely artwork, beautiful Anchor branding and that familiar bottle shape is aesthetically pleasing. I’m a fan of this before drinking, which is always dangerous.

Once again, to keep this calendar up-to-date, this was consumed at around 11.30pm when I got home on 3^rd December.

"A sequel. That’s it. We’ll bring it out on March 25, and we’ll call it … Christmas 2!"

Anchor Brewery - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015 (special Ale brewed with spices) 5.5%

Sitting a lucious dark brown colour with slight off white head; the nose is surprisingly tame with quite generic dark fruit and roasted malt scents. Perhaps I’m overly tired and at this point scent descriptors and eluding me, but I’m not picking out much else. The taste, however, is sheer winter indulgence. It's warming and full bodied for its relatively tame strength. There are toasted prunes and dates, like the crispy outer layer of a pudding. There are fig leaves and damp bark, a slight Belgian dark yeast character and the occasional suggestion of blackcurrant liquorice. It's big on carbonation this fresh but everything blends well into a nutty, herby and oaky long finish.

There's something psychological about drinking Anchor Christmas Ale. Something about that beautiful, artistic label and the bottle prologue talking about winter bringing life anew creates a little Christmas feeling inside of you. There's a lust for a winter view. There's a desire for a log fire and warm blanket. Perhaps the history and those aesthetics I mentioned create an illusion of a better beer than it is. I like this more for the entire experience and occasionally that is what beer drinking - and certainly Christmas - is all about.

Mince Pie Match Rating: 9/10 – The beer really brings out the alcohol in the mincemeat

Best paired with: Staring at a Winter View on repeat for hours (such as this), if you don’t have a real one of your own

Comments

WHEN CELEBRITIES DIE - THE INFINITY OF PUBS

Recently I was stood outside Huddersfield Railway Station waiting for my Replacement Bus Service. I was eating much needed food from a nearby fast food outlet and contemplating my next move. Other match-goers had gone home but I had over 50 minutes to wait for my bus. We’d already been to a few of our post-match regular spots and so I was contemplating somewhere new or different to pass the time now. I stood in St George’s Square, behind the statue of Harold Wilson, and pondered where I should waste my next hour. And pondered and pondered. After deliberation that ate into much of my allotted time, I walked down to the familiar setting of The Sportsman, realising that there wasn’t anywhere different to go at all. But whilst I deliberated, I cast my eye over the currently scaffold-covered George hotel opposite the station; a place I had been in once with my Dad. It’s downstairs public bar had stood as a firm and available option to match-goers fo...

The Pubs of Stalybridge Part One: The Stalybridge Seven.

And a touch more ... Rififi Nightclub - once the town's cinema - has stood empty and unused for four and a half years This is the continuation of my posts of regular pub crawls to try and get myself in more pubs and discover more. Whilst I grew up in an old hamlet that most were quick to distance themselves from, my address clearly stated that we belonged to Stalybridge. However distant the town centre felt I was a Stalybridger, a Stalybridgian, a Stalyian: you know I don’t think I’ve ever heard us given a name before. I’m going with Stalyian. After a few moves around the country and through various relationships, I didn’t expect to find myself still local to the town in 2017. Whilst my address hasn’t stated Stalybridge for 3 years, I still spend plenty of time in the town – not least as it houses my “local.” To many in the north-west, it is famous for its nickname of Staly Vegas , that came about (as far as I’m aware) through its late Nighties-through-to-N...

Advent Calendar Window 14 - La Goudale de Noel

"Keep my distance, but you still catch my eye, Tell me, baby, do you recognise me? Well, it’s been a year, that doesn’t surprise me" La Goudale is an interesting French enigma. I searched for this under the label Brassee a L’Ancienne believing this to be the name of the brewery. After some fruitless searching, I learnt that this is not the name of a brewer, but rather a French saying that, roughly translated, means “Brewed in a Traditional way.” La Goudale is actually from the Brewery Gayant based in Douai, North-east France that aleso houses other well-nown brews such as Amadeus and La Biere Du Demon. The real reason I find them an enigma though is for the discovery the other day that two of their beers – the Abbey and Wit – are sold in Aldi. They are in 750ml bottles and are £2.49 and £1.99 respectively. Housed here, the repugnant snob in me thinks they look cheap and unappetising on these shelves and managed to slightly put me off my La Goudale...

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog