Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak

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

Name: Michelob Celebrate Vanilla
Date: 11/04/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Bend Brewing

muddy amber, whispy beige head, bits of drippy lace, huge sweet vanilla aroma along with some sweet fruity malt, sweet malt flavor, lots of vanilla character, oak shows up in the finish and adds a bitter edge, gets tiresome quickly

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 10/20
Rating: 2.7/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: *4

To this point, a festival special for the GABF but they envisioned marketing it this coming Christmas, so we’ll see. Dull amber colour. Light vanilla and caramel aroma with a hint of booziness. The flavour is very sweet and really heavy on the vanilla. Combine with a rather thick body and it’s practically ice cream. Light caramel and oak background thankfully keep things on the beery side. It’s a bit simple overall, though, and I’m not a huge fan of vanilla in beer so that doesn’t help win me over either.

Beautiful amber color. Some malt aroma. Strong lager, a bit malty, smooth enouth, with a light Bourbon vanilla flavor, more artificial than from the wood. Not bad.

Bottle shared courtesy of egajdzis (thanks Eric!). Poured a darker copper color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of burnt vanilla beans, oak, acorns, and a little buttery. Tastes of lighter vanilla, oak, caramel and nuts. Cloyingly sweet. When I saw this was from AB and read vanilla, I expected an artificial and overpowering vanilla quality but was pleasantly surprised that the vanilla portion was done nicely. Gotta love that screw top...

Pours copper with a decent white head. Smells of bananas, vanilla, coriander and grapes. Taste is lightly fruity with some pine sole notes and a light citrussy aftertaste. Alcohol is well masked. Pretty decent overall. I’ll lay a bottle down for next year to see if some of the fruity notes that pack quite a punch mellow out a bit.

I had this at FoBAB 3, and not on my own ticket. The aroma was a strong, sweet vanilla, a cloying caramel, and a whiff of alcohol. It was more like drinking a candied copy of beer, the caramel and vanilla blending in the taste like something one might pull out of their Halloween bag. The advertised bourbon barrel aging really made no impression. I was just glad that there were so many great brews to move on to.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Third Annual Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers, Chicago, IL 11/12/2005<font size=-1>

Certainly purchased more the glasses than the twist off bottle. Copper color with a yellowish taupe head that diminishes to a small, but stable lid. An odd dusty vanilla aroma. A pink jelly bean sweetness also seems to be in the mix. Sweet artificial fruit flavors mix with caramel and vanilla. Mild bourbon flavors, does not seem to be the "good stuff", more like Old Guckenheimer. More burn than flavor in the middle. The finish and linger are better with some malt and mild floral flavors. I still get a malt liquor flavors, that have a white grape flavor somewhere in the middle. Not enough malt complexity to make this anything but a mediocre souped up vanilla laced amber lager.

Amber ruby color, no head. Nose of strong pale malts, almost like a russian strong ale it’s so much like a super sweet malt liquor. A bit of hay and dusty vanilla. The flavor is intense with vanilla and sweet plywood. If I was chugging mexican vanilla that had been soaking in particle board, it would probably taste better. The finish is long and sweet, strong carbonation and alcohol. The tail is syrupy. Yeah, I can see why no one likes this.