Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Very dark brown. Nutmeg aroma. Malty, spicy and and rather sweet. Medium bitterness. I find this years version to be more balanced than previous years.
pilsnerrogge (4802) reviewed Steam Beer from Anchor Brewing Company 24 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
[bottled] Copper colour. Thick head, doesn’t stay long though. Sweet toffee aroma with notes of hops. Hoppy bitter almond flavour. Thin body.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 2.5
I think it tasted like burnt diet Coke!!....................................
omhper (45152) reviewed Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing Company 24 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Orange coloured. Dry with citrusy hop aroma and nice, big, lingering bitterness, but still manages to be balanced.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5
So everyone else is talking about the 2001 and I'm just getting to the 2000. Oh well, I didn't think too highly of this particular vintage - excessive ginger, burnt raisins, kind of thin.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9.5
Smooth, malty, fruity, medium hop depth but primarily malty. Definite and strong alcohol warming. Excellent.
Oakes (33770) reviewed Steam Beer from Anchor Brewing Company 25 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
I gotta be blunt here - I just don't get it. Here you have an amber ale with a hard body, respectable malt profile and dry finish. Ok, it's a decent beer, has some flavour and complexity, but it enjoys an absurdly good reputation. It's just not that special I don't think.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
This is for the 2000 Christmas release, labelled as Our Special Ale. Interestingly spiced with definite hints of nutmeg and ginger. I also imagined a trace of ginseng, but it was probably the nutmeg. Interesting complex beer good for sipping and studying on a quiet cold evening. Aging may be order for better flavor integration. Addition: 1998 bottle sampled in February 2004! Very dark brown, reddish tinge, dark enough to be near opaque in the glass. Creamy tan head, fading quickly. Aroma modest but there's a dense complexity: mostly unchanged from fresher samples, dark chocolatey/nutty malts with a cardamom quality. Flavor is dark and slightly burnt/woody,with the malt continuing to be chocolatey and walnutty. Spices come through quite clear, I get nutmeg first and foremost. Ginger may also be present, as may be ginseng, cardamom. Any juniper flavor, if its an actual ingredient as hinted by the label, is pretty hard to notice, but I'm less than 100% sure what it tastes like. Finish is light, generally clean, with the aforementioned spices lingering all over the palate in the aftertaste. I've raised the numbers for this after rating the 6 year old bottle. I think this beer really does get better with age, so this rating will now reflect "aging" quality.
Oakes (33770) reviewed Small Beer from Anchor Brewing Company 25 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4
A decent bitter, but something about it just seemed off kilter. Maybe a little too astringent in the finish (small beers do end up overhopped sometimes).
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Interesting and unique beer - difficult to judge. Mild tasting, with a moderate hop presence. It really does, in some ways, have char's of both a lager and ale. Thanks to the new hop guide, I can say that I don't like Northern Brewer hops as a finish/aromatic hop. The hop aromatics and flavors in this beer present as a slightly woody and earthy/musty note that I don't find particularly agreeable. Bitter finish is a bit strong for this light bodied beer.