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Lighthouse’ First Seasonal: Winter Ale

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Victoria’s Lighthouse Brewing is releasing its first ever seasonal limited release beer, a winter ale.  It’s going to be an English style winter warmer, a malty sweet beer that can sometimes taste a bit spicy, although no spice was actually added to this one.  It will be available on draught and in bottles starting tomorrow, Monday November 2nd.  There are only 2000 six packs of bottles being released, so make sure to grab a box if you can.  Lighthouse generally brews good beer and I imagine that their winter ale won’t disappoint.

What might be more significant than the launch of a tasty new beer is that this is Lighthouse’ first ever seasonal release.  They credit their new bottling line as giving them the capability to release small batch beers in an affordable way.  I hope this is the first of many seasonal releases for them.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: lighthouse brewing, seasonal, victoria, winter ale, winter warmer

Review: Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale 2008

Sunday, December 14th, 2008 | Review | No Comments

Anchor Christmas Ale 2008

Anchor Brewing is one of my favorite breweries.  I am a big fan of their Anchor Steam Ale and, to a lesser extent, their Liberty Ale, which I find a tad overly hopped.  Those are the only two Anchor brews you can generally get up here in BC.  It was much to my delight when a friend brought over a six pack of this year’s Anchor Christmas Ale last weekend.  I had previously had a taste of this fine beer at Vancouver’s Hopscotch Festival, but I had also had many other prior tastes to obscure my judgment.  I welcomed the chance to enjoy this beer in greater depth.

I’m the kind of guy that likes to read the story of every beer I drink.  Looking into Anchor Christmas Ale, I learned that they’ve been brewing a Christmas Ale every year since 1975, never using the same recipe twice.  That is cool; I love traditions like that.  The beer itself has a very dark brown colour, which had me expecting a very heavy, full bodied beer.  I was wrong in my expectation and was pleased to taste a medium bodied, moderately spiced ale.  Unlike most Christmas Ales, this is the sort you could enjoy a few of.  You could also offer this beer to a wussy beer drinker and not fear their reaction.  As for the taste, I found it rich and malty and picked up things like chocolate and coffee.  What didn’t agree with me so much was the mix of spices.  I picked up ginger and nutmeg, both of which I am not a huge fan of.  For more in depth tasting notes, check out the BeerAdvocate reviews.

What I liked about this beer was its lack of heaviness and rich taste, but was not too fond of the mix of spices used.  I would recommend this beer to fellow beer drinkers and would buy it again for friends, but probably not for my own consumption.  That being said, I look forward to next years Anchor Christmas Ale.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: anchor brewing, Beer, christmas ale, christmas ale 2008, Review, seasonal