Beer Review: Anchor Steam Beer

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.9 percent

Appearance: Anchor Steam Beer is a shiny and attractive copper. It has both pink and orange hues floating around in the body of the brew as well. I've never seen a color like this before. There are your typical amber and copper beers, but this (at least in my mind) is the measuring stick. I just want to keep staring at it. I also noticed a slight cloudiness within the body. It wasn't totally obscuring, but it seemed to be less hazy towards the bottom of the glass and got a bit more intense as I looked higher. The head is an awesome-looking cream white and was very lively. It ended up leaving a ton of thick and ample lacing. There was also a plethora of carbonation bubbles quickly approaching towards the head of the beer.

Smell: I took in a large helping of caramel aroma at first. It was strong, but intriguingly it didn't come off as sweet. There was also a hint of dark bread as well as some dark, but not-so-dark malt. There was also something fruity behind all of that. To me, it seemed close to something such as a pear. That was a nice compliment of sweetness.

Taste: This is where it all came together for me and this brew. This beer is interestingly sweet and malty up front, but tangy and bitter on the back. Everything compliments something else amazingly. The caramel and the dark bready grain bathed my tongue at the beginning of my first sip. At the midway point (which I rarely pick up in some beers) the sweetness of the pear peaked through albeit just a bit. The fruitiness in this was just enough to make this beer look kind of heavy, but play lightly. The finish and aftertaste ended up being the two most fascinating pieces in this beer's taste. There's a bitterness and a slight zest. The bitterness isn't your typical hop bitterness though. There's a slight biscuit taste from the malt that jumps in right before it goes down. Both bitter tastes stick around in the aftertaste.

Overall Rating: 

This beer is pretty much my standard. I don't think beer gets better than a glass of this does. That's just my thoughts. I sometimes lean towards Southern Tier's Pumking, but I always end up coming back to this one. I've waited to review this beer so long because I wanted it to transfer from my fingers through to the keyboard perfectly. The same goes for the photographing process. I love the color of this beer. I've never seen a color that compares to this one. The taste is also unlike any other beer out there. Just an extremely unique beer.