Anchor Small Beer

Look: Dark, golden color with foamy white head

Taste: Initially bland with a skunky, bitter after taste that lingers a bit

Conclusion: This is the fourth beer in the Anchor line that I’ve tasted, and I was less than impressed… initially. The initial drink was light and tasted really bland, almost like drinking a bud light. And, it had a skunky taste to boot! Ugh… I was so disappointed at the brewery!

The skunky taste lingers, and leaves the slight aroma of a burnt firework. Its faint, but it reminded me of the 4th of July. The initial bitter, skunky taste washes way really quick, as the beer is very light. You can imagine my disappointment at Anchor Brewing… then, I started reading the label on the neck of the bottle. Apparently Anchor Brewing is steeped very deep in American brewing traditions. Small beer was traditionally made of the left over mash of a stronger, better flavored beer, so as to not waste the mash. Imagine my surprise when I read that Anchor Small Beer is made of the mash used to make Old Foggy! (Old Foghorn) Man, from such a great beer, you get this light, bitter, skunky beer?! How is this possible? Thats when I thought, so this is what beer tastes like when it’s reprocessed. Kind of like when you make coffee in a coffee pot with the coffee grounds you used to make the previous pot. It’s lighter, bitterer (yes, it’s a real word), less strong, and kind of bland… same theory applies here.

Well, I continued to drink the tall boy of beer, and, a strange thing happened, the beer started to grow on me. Maybe the initial shock of rubbish washed off my tongue, maybe I got used to the skunkyness; but I started to appreciate the history and style of this beer. While I would not classify it as a light beer, technically it’s an ale, the light mouth feel was perfect for the bitter, skunkyness of the beer. If the flavors were allowed to linger any longer, it might have ruined the experience for me.

My eyes were opened… History was understood and appreciated… Small Beer’s score was bumped up a point… Cheers for Anchor Brewing for reviving this brewing tradition, but if you think about it, some traditions were meant to die.

I give Small Beer a 5 out of 10