{"id":7918,"date":"2018-12-15T00:24:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T06:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=7918"},"modified":"2018-12-18T23:34:29","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T05:34:29","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2018-1-anchor-our-special-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/7918\/12-beers-of-christmas-2018-1-anchor-our-special-ale","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2018 – 1: Anchor Our Special Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anchor<\/a>
\n<\/a>Well, to quote Grandpa Vanderhof in \u201cYou Can\u2019t Take It With You,\u201d here we are again, at yet another liftoff for the 12 Beers of Christmas<\/strong>. For those scratching their heads, all is explained at the 12 Beers of Christmas 2017 Reprise<\/a>, along with links to each of the 72 holiday brews and winter warmers sampled over the past six years.<\/p>\n

As usual, we\u2019re getting rolling with the sole repeat through the years, Anchor Brewing\u2019s Christmas Ale, called Our Special Ale, which it usually is. The recipe and label (always a tree) change each year, so I qualify it for that reason, and that it\u2019s normally one of my favorites anyway, and that the brewery basically revived the practice in the U.S. of concocting something, well, special, for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Many followed; the practice is now commonplace for breweries, which is fine with me. (Although I recently whined somewhere on the social medias that Vermont breweries are poorly represented in the category.) Anchor produced their first Christmas beer way back in 1975, making this the 44th rendition, and as far as I\u2019m concerned, one of the best.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the strongest one the brewery has produced so far, rolling in at 6.9% ABV. But it\u2019s actually a little easier drinking than the 2017 version, one bottle of which I managed to hold onto for comparison purposes this year. My take on that one<\/a>, as I\u2019ve previously boasted, won the North American Guild of Beer Writers award for the Best Beer Review, possibly because a host of potential diversions kept cropping up, and I followed every one of them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s less to go on this year, even on what I\u2019ve learned is Roast Chestnuts Day. There\u2019s a nostalgic sense memory if ever there was one, suggesting family visits to New York City when I was a pipsqueak to check out the holiday lights, the amazing shop windows, the tree at Rockefeller Center, with the pungent, near acrid aroma of roasting chestnuts wafting from corner to corner. And then there was Nat King Cole of course:<\/p>\n