Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak

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

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.

Nice amber, red pour with virtually no head. Vanilla aroma once you get past the intense alcohol, which does have hints of bourbon or cognac. Sweet taste, not really a lot of vanilla, more dried fruit and an overpowering booziness. I think they cut some corners with quality ingredients if they even used the real ingredients they list. Heck, I like vanilla. As advertised, it’s a good after dinner drink and I hate to say it, pretty good.

In the ridiculous screw-cap bottle. Purchased in the grocery store for $6.99. Burnt amber in color with a white head. A weak aroma of mild vanilla. Head dies quickly. Beer has a raspy, abrasive palate- the bourbon spiked alcohol burns in an unpleasant way. I like the flavors: cherry, vanilla (in a huge first flavor bolus), mapel syrup, bourbon and oak. This is possibly the best ABC product that I’ve ever tasted, but that’s not saying much. The big flaw to this beer is the serious alcohol burn that does not get any playing time with other features. It needs more malt balance to the body to contain this kind of fire. After you’re done with this, you feel an interesting bourbon taste in your mouth.

Interesting. Lots of vanilla and spice, with some brandy and alcohol warmth. The best thing to come from AB that’s for sure.

The nose on this had a vanilla and alcohol, and this seems to be off. The smell is like imitation vanilla. The taste is weird. The is some malts and the alcohol is well hidden. But the fake vanilla is all over the place. And I can’t find any oak? Not really bad, as the %10 will make this worth the time, but not something I will try to find again.

<b<Bottle
Pours a watery, dull amber with minimal head. Aroma is like a typical macro brew; I detect not one drop of "bourbon-like, caramelized toward the nose." Well, a bit of sweetness in the aroma, but not much else. Very subtle sweetness, a bit like a light mead. I detect a smidgen of bourbon and oak, but it’s very subtle. Alcohol is slightly in the mix, giving the drinker a bit of tingy bite in the aftertaste. A bit of brandy emerges as it warms. Palate is a bit watery, but I suppose that’s the intention... ? Actually, this isn’t a bad brew, but the $9 price tag for 24 oz. will probably keep me from buying this again.

I’m not getting the vanilla aroma I did the first time I tasted this. Smells like a slightly more hoppy michelob lager. Amber in color with a fast fading head. The vanilla comes out in the flavor along with a fruity sweetness (cherry?) and you can even taste the oak. Some almond notes are in there as well. The finish is a touch too syrupy tasting, but it’s definitely one of the better Bud products I’ve ever had.