Saturday, December 31, 2016

Pic(k) of the Week: 42 years of Anchor's "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

Our Special Ale 2016

This is the forty-second annual "Our Special Ale" from the brewers at Anchor. It is sold only from early November to mid-January. The Ale's recipe is different every year, as is the tree on the label, but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew. This lone pine was found 1,000 miles from Omaha during the westbound construction of the transcontinental railroad.

There was a time, not too long ago —but older than the birthdates of Millenial drinkers— that a beer fancier could find no Christmas beers stacked on American store shelves or poured from bar taps. None.

That is, until 1975, when Anchor Brewing —re-tooled only nine years earlier from a failing 19th-century San Francisco brewery into the first American 'craft' brewery— brewed the nation's first 'craft' Christmas beer. Owner Fritz Maytag named it "Our Special Ale" to molify the religious censors. Now, forty-two years on, Anchor is no longer alone; one can Christmas tipple in profusion.

Here is Maytag on the beer's genesis, as quoted by Don Russell — nom de bière, Joe Sixpack— in his 2008 book, Christmas Beer:
“I was aware of the tradition in medieval villages where they would make special beers for various festival days,” Maytag says. “You'd have beers brewed for weddings, festivals, and other celebrations. And certainly, you'd brew them for Christmas.” It made sense that a small brewery that had been revived thanks to old-world-beer-making techniques would rediscover the tradition of holiday beer. There was only one problem: Maytag didn't have a clue what it should taste like.

Anchor Christmas 1975

For the first few years of its life, Anchor's Our Special Ale was an IPA, brewed with Cascade hops, then a new hop variety. The 1983 version was so well-received, it became a year-round offering called Liberty Ale which is still brewed today. In 1984, Maytag decided to do "something special" for Christmas and brewed a brown ale, but with an American twist: dry-hopped with those Cascade hops. Then, following that, in 1987,
To celebrate his wedding, Maytag crafted a bridal ale filled with herbs and spices. It was so tasty, that the brewery decided to add spices to its [brown ale] holiday ale that winter —and has done so ever since. There's a different recipe each season, and neither Maytag nor any of his employees have ever revealed what's behind those mysterious flavors.

It's been a spiced brown ale ever since. I tasted this year's iteration. And yes! Dark brown with red tinges. Aromas and flavors of gingerbread, nutmeg, pine, and cloves, as if a pfeffernüsse cookie were a beer. But, Mr. Maytag has protested:
No! That's the only thing I'm going to say. There are no cloves in it none. I'm tired of hearing about cloves!

Despite the Christmas-cookie spicing, it's not a sweet dessert beer. Think of savory uses of nutmeg, such as a sweet potato or bechamel-sauce-based dish or, say, 'Cincinnati chili.'

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the year Maytag bought, saved, and revived Anchor, thus ushering in the era of American 'craft' beer. In 2011, Maytag sold the brewery, but remains as "Chairman Emeritus," proud of each of the brewery's beers as "works of art." Each of the forty-two labels of "Our Special Ale" has featured a drawing of a tree, and each (except in 1976) was drawn by one artist, Jim Stitt.

Anchor Christmas 2016

About the tree on this year's label, here's beer (and golf) writer Tom Bedell:
This year’s label is based on the Pinus solitarius, or lone pine, known as the “1,000 Mile Tree” which was found in Utah in 1869 during construction of the Union Pacific, the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. The tree, a stately ninety feet tall, was almost exactly 1,000 miles from Omaha, the eastern terminus of the railroad, and it became something of a tourist attraction, at least as far as the rail passengers were concerned. The train would often pause at the tree and some passengers would attempt to climb it, as the 1869 photograph by Union Pacific’s A.J. Russell shows:

Thousand Mile Tree (1869)

Stitt clearly based his label on the photo, though it’s hard to tell from Russell’s shot whether the man high atop the tree is holding onto a mug of beer. Probably not, but he is in Stitt’s rendering.

The tree died in 1900 and was removed. But in 1982, Union Pacific planted a new one to commemorate the site, albeit now only about 960 miles from Omaha thanks to track changes over the years. Enclosed within a fence, the tree is in roughly the same spot, though it has a long way to go to match the original’s height.

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Our Special Ale: 1975-2016.

This winter-holiday season, beer writer Jay Brooks has run a forty-two part series at his blog Brookston Beer Bulletin, depicting each of the beer's labels, from the incarnation of "Our Special Ale" in 1975 to the present year. With his permission, I've collected all of them here in table format: each of the forty-two labels and its corresponding tree. Click on a thumbnail to view a larger image accompanied by a brief story of that year's creation.

Anchor's "Our Special Ale" is but one beer, and by today's 'crafty' standards, fusty, even if 6.5% alcohol-by-volume. That is, until one tastes it, until one reflects on how it has been, and is, a seminal and delicious part of 'craft' beer's half-century history.

As the bottle label states: "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." (And wouldn't the adjectives in that seasonal American salutation make more religious sense if switched, I've long wondered?)

Anchor Christmas 1975
1975
Silhouette of a Christmas tree

Anchor Christmas 1976
1976
Sequoiadendron giganteum

Anchor Christmas 1977
1977
Pseudotsuga menziesii

Anchor Christmas 1978
1978
Inspired by an evergreen in the Sierra Nevadas
Anchor Christmas 1979
1979
Inspired by the Original Christmas Ale Tree
Anchor Christmas 1980
1980
Genus: Quercus


Anchor Christmas 1981
1981
Olea europaea


Anchor Christmas 1982
1982
Notholithocarpus densiflorus

Anchor Christmas 1983
1983
Abies cephalonica

Anchor Christmas 1984
1984
Tree of Life

Anchor Christmas 1985
1985
Arbutus menziesii

Anchor Christmas 1986
1986
Castanopsis chrysophylla
Anchor Christmas 1987
1987
Sequoia sempervirens


Anchor Christmas 1988
1988
Picea glauca


Anchor Christmas 1989
1989
Acer pseudoplatanus

Anchor Christmas 1990
1990
Inspired by the work of French artist Paul Cézanne
Anchor Christmas 1991
1991
Betula papyrifera


Anchor Christmas 1992
1992
Pinus ponderosa


Anchor Christmas 1993
1993
Malus pumila


Anchor Christmas 1994
1994
Inspired by the Original Christmas Ale Tree
Anchor Christmas 1995
1995
Cocos nucifera
Anchor Christmas 1996
1996
Quercus alba
Anchor Christmas 1997
1997
Pinus sylvestris
Anchor Christmas 1998
1998
Juniperus californica
Anchor Christmas 1999
1999
Olneya tesota

Anchor Christmas 2000
2000
Torreya californica

Anchor Christmas 2001
2001
Washingtonia filifera
Anchor Christmas 2002
2002
Populus fremontii

Anchor Christmas 2003
2003
Picea sitchensis


Anchor Christmas 2004
2004
Inspired by the Original Christmas Ale Tree
Anchor Christmas 2005
2005
Quercus agrifolia


Anchor Christmas 2006
2006
Fagus sylvatica


Anchor Christmas 2007
2007
Quercus lobata

Anchor Christmas 2008
2008
Pinus jeffreyi

Anchor Christmas 2009
2009
Cupressus macrocarpa
Anchor Christmas 2010
2010
Ginkgo biloba

Anchor Christmas 2011
2011
Pinus longaeva

Anchor Christmas 2012
2012
Araucaria heterophylla
Anchor Christmas 2013
2013
Abies concolor var. Lowiana
Anchor Christmas 2014
2014
Sequoiadendron giganteum
Anchor Christmas 2015
2015
Cedrus Deodara
Anchor Christmas 2016
2016
Pinus Solitarius


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Monday, December 26, 2016

Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 49/50, 2016.

Clamps and Gaskets: weekly roundup
A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 49/50
4 - 17 December 2016

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
  • 10 December 2016
    "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." The 68th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.
    —Via United Nations.

  • 9 December 2016
    [In the mid-1870s,] the U.S. population was roughly 45 million. So there was one brewery for roughly every 11,000 people. The U.S. population today is 325 million. That breaks down to one brewery per 65,000 people. If we had the same number of breweries per capita today that there were in the 1870s, there would be nearly 30,000 breweries in the country.
    —Via MSN.

  • Godspeed, John Glenn
  • 8 December 2016
    John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, dies at 95.
    —Via NPR.

  • 8 December 2016
    According to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, the overall U.S. death rate has increased for the first time in a decade, and that has led to a drop in overall life expectancy for the first time since 1993. On average, the overall life expectancy, for someone born in 2015, fell from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. The life expectancy for the average American man fell two-tenths of a year — from 76.5 to 76.3. For women, it dropped one-tenth — from 81.3 to 81.2 years. The overall death rate in 2015 increased from 724.6 per 100,000 people to 733.1 per 100,000.
    —Via NPR.

  • 7 December 2016
    Without citing historical references, a 'craft' beer magazine accuses American brewers of turning to crime, en masse, during Prohibition.
    —Via YFGF.

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor
  • 7 December 2016
    The 75th anniversary of the Imperial Japanese attack on the United States naval facities in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
    —Via Smithsonian Magazine.

  • 7 December 2016
    Sales of beer and wine on-the-premises were down slightly in 2016. However, dollar sales continued to increase "as consumers gravitated towards more premium spirits, wine, and beer products."
    —Via Craft Brewing Business.

  • 5 December 2016
    Some breweries are doing [IBU] calculations rather than measurements; they’re calculating 120 IBUs in an IPA but they know, given solubility, that’s not even possible. I felt like as an industry we were lying to consumers, not overtly, but out of ignorance.
    —Kurt Driesner, quality assurance director at Urban Chestnut Brewing of St. Louis, Missouri, as quoted at DRAFT.

  • 5 December 2016
    As of the end of November, there were 5,005 active brewing companies in the United States, yet again a record number. Ninety-nine percent of them were 'craft' breweries, i.e., "small and independent."
    —Via [U.S.] Brewers Association.

  • 4 December 2016
    Summer is peak beer season, but more [beer] is sold in December than any other month. Americans bought more than $5.8 billion worth of beer, wine and liquor last December, about $1.3 billion more than July, the next highest-grossing month. [...] The National Beer Wholesalers Association says craft beers sell better in winter than the traditional lagers and light beers most people drink during summer.
    —Via Augusta Chronicle.

  • 4 December 2016
    The Army will not approve an easement necessary to permit the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota, given that it would pass very near the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The decision marked a victory for the Native American tribes and others who had protested onsite against the oil pipeline. Leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe expressed fears that a spill could threaten the water supplies of its people.
    —Via Washington Post.
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