December 17 is the start of the ancient Roman midwinter festival Saturnalia, a celebration that may have influenced traditions associated with Christmas, so what better day to celebrate an original American Christmas beer that largely influenced craft beer holiday traditions: Anchor Christmas Ale.

Christmas Ale is a standard here on the Beer Advent Calendar, having been featured here every single year since I started the calendar back in 2005. Each year, the (secret) recipe changes, as does the hand-drawn tree on the label. This year’s recipe is 7.2% alcohol by volume and based on an Italian liqueur; The New School blog has details on it and the tree:

The rye-forward ale showcases notes of orange, honeysuckle, toasted malts, and eucalyptus. Well-structured with botanicals and pleasantly herbaceous hops, finishing with a touch of spice like the warming bitter-sweet notes of Amaro, an Italian herbal liqueur often enjoyed as an after-dinner digestif.

This year’s hand-drawn label features a Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree, a nod to Mary Ellen Pleasant – a 19th-century San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, abolitionist, and civil rights activist. Pleasant, who is recognized as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California” for her impact during gold-rush San Francisco, planted Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees outside her Pacific Heights mansion shortly before her death in 1904. In 1974, the city of San Francisco designated the trees a Structure of Merit, recognizing them and their accompanying honorary plaque as Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park.

This is a holiday classic that every beer lover should have on hand this time of year.

Note: The Christmas Ale pages linked to above still shows the 2020 edition of the beer; Anchor apparently hasn’t updated that page since its rebrand.

Find Anchor Christmas Ale on:

• Anchor Brewing Beer Finder
• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• Facebook

Image credit: Anchor’s Facebook page