{"id":7412,"date":"2017-12-13T16:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T22:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=7412"},"modified":"2018-12-10T18:45:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T00:45:23","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2017-1-anchor-our-special-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/7412\/12-beers-of-christmas-2017-1-anchor-our-special-ale","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2017 – 1: Anchor Our Special Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Anchor<\/a>\n

[In late September I was surprised and pleased to learn that this review came in first place in the 2018 North American Guild of Beer Writers awards as the Best Beer Review. Particularly after I read the fine reviews that came in second <\/a>and third<\/a>, and remarked how pithy they were. It may mark some kind of first where being\u00a0discursive paid off.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"NAGBW<\/a>I don’t know about other writers, but often, when I read old pieces, I find myself of two minds. If I’m enjoying the piece, that is, I’ll be simultaneously thinking,<\/em> Gee, that’s pretty good, and,<\/em> How the hell did I think to do that, and how the hell will I ever be able to do it again? In short, every\u00a0new piece is rooted in uncertainty. When they come out well, how can it help but be surprising and pleasing? And when others agree, why, it’s downright encouraging.]<\/em><\/p>\n

<<<>>><\/p>\n

Today is Saint Lucy\u2019s Day, which means it\u2019s a good day to drink the 2017 version of Anchor Brewing\u2019s Our Special Ale. The reasoning for this gets a little convoluted, so let\u2019s start by conceding that any day you can lay hands on some is a good day to drink Anchor\u2019s Christmas beer.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re starting is the sixth year of the 12 Beers of Christmas<\/strong>, a romp through a dozen brews keyed to the holiday or winter season. Welcome aboard to all. For those new to the game the 12 Beers of Christmas 2016 Reprise<\/a><\/em> will bring you quickly up to date, with links to the 60 different choices from the past five years.<\/p>\n

The one constant has been Anchor\u2019s Our Special Ale\u2014still different, as it changes its recipe every year, and that now spans 43 consecutive years. Anchor\u2019s release of its first holiday beer in 1975 revived a tradition dead in the U.S. since Prohibition. These days the corpse is running wild; last year Paste Magazine<\/em> ran a blind tasting of 104 Christmas and Winter beers and gave no indication it had exhausted the supply. The tradition has been lively abroad as well, and I\u2019ve again stocked up on a bunch of imports.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s always worth a tip of the cap to the San Francisco brewery. The annual appearance of the Anchor Christmas beer has become one of my traditions in any case, along with a few others that regularly usher in the season, like Sierra Nevada\u2019s Celebration Ale and Deschutes Brewery\u2019s Jubelale (“Warming Up for the 12 Beers of Christmas<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

\"Sebastian<\/a>

Sebastian Vizcaino<\/p><\/div>\n

Part of the fun of the annual Anchor release is a new tree on the label design, usually a California coniferous of some sort, drawn by artist James Stitt every year (except, for some reason, 1976). Anchor makes the point that trees have long been symbols of the winter solstice, when the earth is set to be born anew in its lengthening days.<\/p>\n

Lest this seem a bit too pagan, this year\u2019s tree is the rare Santa Lucia fir (Abies bracteata<\/em>), found only in the Santa Lucia range on central California\u2019s central coast. The range was named for Santa Lucia, or Saint Lucy, in 1602, by Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino, who happened to be passing by on December 14, the day after Saint Lucy\u2019s feast day.<\/p>\n

Did Saint Lucy have anything to do with Christmas? Eventually, yes, if not particularly in her lifetime. For those not as up on their Catholic saints as Vizcaino (as a lapsed Presbyterian, I\u2019m personally on shaky ground here), a brief review:<\/p>\n

\"St.-Lucy1\"<\/a>Saint Lucy was a fourth century Christian who, so that she might use both hands to deliver food to the poor, wore a wreath of candles on her head. An avowed virgin, she angered a spurned suitor which led to her martyrdom. Various legends suggest a grisly end, including the gouging out of her eyes. Hence she has become the patron saint of the blind, and many a painting show her holding a platter of unsettlingly staring eyes, looking vaguely like a pair of fried eggs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tempted to reference the running line from the film \u201cA Christmas Story\u201d (\u201cYou\u2019ll shoot your eye out, kid…\u201d), but surely that would be in poor taste. Certainly little of this has anything to do with the familiar song, \u201cSanta Lucia,\u201d which has been covered by everyone from Caruso to Elvis Presley and has wound up in scores of movies and television shows. Elvis sang it in \u201cViva Las Vegas,\u201d but it also warbles along in the Marx Brothers\u2019 \u201cA Night at the Opera,\u201d in \u201cAn American Werewolf in London\u201d and so on. Here are two minutes and thirty seconds of Tino Rossi’s rendition:<\/p>\n