Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

  • Home
  • About
  • Editorial
  • Birthdays
  • Art & Beer

Socialize

  • Dribbble
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Powered by Genesis

Anchor Christmas Ale 1993

December 2, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day nineteen of my run to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1993 was the nineteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the seventh year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like the previous six year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This nineteenth label was a “Paradise Apple,” or “Malus pumila.”

Anchor-Xmas-1993

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1992

December 1, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day eighteen of my hotfoot to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1992 was the eighteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the sixth year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like the previous five year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This eighteenth label was a “Ponderosa Pine,” or “Pinus ponderosa.”

Anchor-Xmas-1992

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1991

November 30, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day seventeen of my sprint to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1991 was the seventeenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the fifth year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like the previous four year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This seventeenth label was a “Paper Birch,” or “Betula papyrifera.”

Anchor-Xmas-1991

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1990

November 29, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day sixteen of my spring to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1990 was the sixteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the fourth year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like the previous three year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This sixteenth label was inspired by the work of French artist Paul Cézanne.

Anchor-Xmas-1990

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1989

November 28, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day fifteen of my trip down memory lane to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1989 was the fifteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the third year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like the previous two year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This fifteenth label was a “Sycamore Maple” or “Acer pseudoplatanus.”

Anchor-Xmas-1989

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1988

November 27, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day fourteen of my fall flight to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1988 was the fourteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the second year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Like last year’s, a spiced brown ale was created for the year’s Christmas Ale. This fourteenth label was a “White Spruce” or “Picea glauca.”

Anchor-Xmas-1988

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1987

November 26, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day thirteen of my train to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1987 was the thirteenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year marked the first year that Anchor’s Our Special Ale included spices. Last year’s brown ale was used as the base for a spiced Bridale for Fritz Maytag’s wedding in early 1987. That recipe became this 1987 Christmas Ale. This thirteenth label was a “Douglas Fir” and a “Coast Redwood,” or “Pseudotsuga menziesii and Sequoia sempervirens.”

Anchor-Xmas-1987

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1986

November 25, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day twelve of my Black Friday bound to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1986 was the twelfth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year the beer was another brown ale, their third one, though it was different from the two previous year’s offering, and still with no spices added. But this was also the last beer Anchor made without spices. This twelfth label was a “Golden Chinquapin,” or “Castanopsis chrysophylla.”

Anchor-Xmas-1986

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1985

November 24, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day eleven of my Thanksgiving escape to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1985 was the eleventh year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and this year the beer was another brown ale, their second one, though it was different from the previous year’s offering, and still with no spices added. This eleventh label was a “Pacific Madrone,” or “Arbutus menziesii.”

Anchor-Xmas-1985

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, History, Holidays

Anchor Christmas Ale 1984

November 23, 2016 By Jay Brooks

xmas-christmas-ale
It’s day ten of my turkey trot to Christmas featuring all 42 labels from Anchor’s Christmas Ale — a.k.a. Our Special Ale — all different beers (well, mostly different) and all different labels, each one designed by local artist Jim Stitt, up to and including this year’s label.

1984 was the tenth year that Anchor made their Christmas Ale, and it was a radical departure from their previous holiday beers. The 1983 version proved so popular that they changed the Liberty Ale recipe to match it, and ever since, your Liberty Ale is the same as Anchor’s 1983 Christmas Ale. But that also led them to conclude that they should do something different for 1984, so that year the beer was a brown ale, still with no spices added. This tenth label was based on a “Tree of Life.”

Anchor-Xmas-1984

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Beer Labels, Christmas, Holidays

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Find Something

Northern California Breweries

Please consider purchasing my latest book, California Breweries North, available from Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore.

Recent Comments

  • Steve "Pudgy" De Rose on Beer Birthday: Pete Slosberg
  • Paul Finch on Beer Birthday: Dann Paquette
  • Steve 'Pudgy' De Rose on Historic Beer Birthday: Louis Hudepohl
  • Steve 'Pudgy' De Rose on Historic Beer Birthday: Sharon Vaughn
  • Paul Gatza on Beer Birthday: Paul Gatza

Recent Posts

  • Beer Birthday: Mikkel September 13, 2025
  • Beer Birthday: Lorenzo Dabove September 13, 2025
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Jan Léonardus Moortgat September 13, 2025
  • Beer Birthday: Dan Gordon September 13, 2025
  • Beer Birthday: Steve Gonzalez September 12, 2025

BBB Archives

Feedback

Head Quarter
This site is hosted and maintained by H25Q.dev. Any questions or comments for the webmaster can be directed here.