Brewery: Anchor Brewing
Location: San Francisco, USA
ABV: 8.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Beer Ritz, Leeds

Inspired by The Beer Nut‘s recent exhortation to get stuck in to your stash from time to time – rather than watching all those lovely bottles of strong ale slowly mature towards some nebulous and tricky-to-accurately-judge nirvana of agèd perfection – I decided last weekend to bring my sole bottle of Anchor Old Foghorn ale out of the beer cupboard, a mere four months after putting it away on the top shelf, with the rest of the Good Stuff. And I’m extremely glad I did, because now I know to pick up a good half dozen or so bottles of this rather magnificent ale the very next time I see it on offer.

Anchor Old Foghorn pours a lovely dark chestnut colour and from the first sip releases a cacophony of rich, sensuous flavours: toffee and coconut predominate in a sweet and heady swirl, with developing red wine and sour cherry notes on the after-taste, which help to take the edge off the sugariness and stop it becoming too cloying or sickly. The alcohol hit is noticeable yet quietly under-stated and the mouth-feel is smooth and chewy, all of which makes for a glorious, slow-sipper that’s quite, quite delicious… particularly once that initial sweetness settles down a bit and the flavours begin to merge and mellow into something that’s a real joy to sample.

Definitely the sort of ale I’d like to become much better acquainted with. I have a feeling my next trip to Beer Ritz is going to be an expensive one…