Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
St. Louis, Missouri USA

Better than the chocolate, but not all that great. Too much to ask for a brewer of this size to make something like this taste great. Just too sweet and not well balanced.

In the torpedo and in the wine bottle. I get these yearly and have tried them aged and fresh. It has a amber glow with a quickly dissolving thin head. It has an overwhelming vanilla aroma and flavor. It is too sweet to drink more then 2 glasses . If you can imagine a super sweet barley wine this is it. I took one to a wine tasting . It was interesting watching wine drinkers try to decipher what kind of “wine” this was.

Bottle from a neoghbors collection. Reddish pour with thin off white head. Syrupy aroma with hints of vanilla. A little sweet for me and thin. Brown sugar finish. I was not crazy about it.

I had this bottle before it was released. I had a sample at the FOBAB in 2005, didn’t bother rating, but when the fest was over, the A-B rep let me have an unopened bottle (or did I just lift it? Who can remember?) This gem sat in my cellar for a year until I broke it out at a tasting. Here are the notes from 2006. Golden color. Aroma is primarily vanilla with some spice, but mostly vanilla. Taste is very sweet with lots of vanilla & wood on the finish. This is so cloying that it is hard to drink. I remember not liking this when I had it a year ago, thinking it was cloyingly sweet with too much vanilla. A year has not helped.

Ample bottle from Budweiser rep. Not half bad! Big nose of vanilla and oak. Very creamy and smooth on the palet.

Sampled from 2006 vintage torpedo bottle found in a basement. Vanilla extract nose. Similar body.

Sampled from 2006 vintage torpedo bottle, courtesy of brewfiend. Pours a clear copper amber brew with a fast dissolving white head that disipates to a white ring and some film top Aroma of herbal spice, vanilla, a touch of wintergreen, and dried oak wood. Taste is medium bodied, light carbonation with flavors of caramel malt, some flowery hop and a touch of vanilla. Finish is slightly metalic, dry with a wood and vanilla aftertaste. Just like its chocolate version, It’s different.

Tasted at Churchill’s with Ivan, Tim, Aaron, and Dave. I think Ivan broke out this 2005 2yr old gem. Some melanoidin. Very mellow and soft for a 10% beer. Small head. Vanilla is noticable, but probably subdued from the age. I’m sure this one’s under-rated because of the Michleob name, and should be rated blind. Pretty nice 3.7-3.9.