anchor christmas ale

Patrick and I celebrated his 22nd birthday with a trip to China Cottage with his family. I ate outside-the-box with a firecracker stir-fry laden with mushrooms, scallops, shrimp, crab, and seared chicken (not to mention all sorts of vegetables and, best of all, water chestnuts!). Afterwards we ran by D.L.M. and got a six-pack of my "Christmas Ale of the Week": The Anchor Brewing Company's Christmas Ale. The coolest thing about this ale is that, every year, the recipe is different. The beer's "theme" is the celebration of the newness of life, and with each year's different recipe, the graphic design of the tree is different. The tree is chosen as a graphic because trees symbolize the winter solstice where the earth, with its seasons, is "born anew." 2010's tree is the Ginkgo biloba tree. This year's ale is a dark, mahogany brown with overriding hops in the taste, highlighted with bits of nutmeg and clove. I prefer the spicy ales to the amber ales, and I'd rate this one #3 thus far, preceded by (1) Great Lakes Christmas Ale, (2) 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale, and followed by (4) Bell's Christmas Ale.