Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

Pours a dark gold, but smells strongly of a sweet caramel. Tastes like vanilla and bourbon. Is this beer? Cute name and concept, but a poor attempt to produce something drinkable.

Pours a sparkling clear orange-amber with a frothy, beige head that diminishes. The nose is candy-sweet with notes of caramel malt, light vanilla and a hint of faint bourbon. There is an odd plastic-like note looming in the background as well. Light bodied with fine carbonation and an almost harsh, astringent finish. The flavor is an astringent combination of a rather unpleasant bourbon/plastic note combined with a vanilla-filled caramel candy chew. Overall, this one was pretty much a train wreck for me. Tolerable while it sat on my tongue, it became a just awful at the swallow. Thankfully that flavor didn’t linger long, but it was bad enough that the rest of the bottle went down the drain.

Bright orange copper color with a diminishing ecru head. If this was given to me blind, I would have never guessed that its name included bourbon. I do catch a whiff of perhaps bourbon vanilla, but am hard pressed to find anything else, except a touch of eau ’d malt liquor. Plenty of vanilla in this one. Certainly not your father’s bourbon cask, unless your father living from 1920 to 1933. Light malt liquor undertones. A premium malt liquor with a dash of vanilla.

Bottle. Pours darker brown with a tan head. Feel of swirling warm alcohol took me by surprise, then came the vanilla taste. Pretty much tastes like an ale doused with vanilla. Blended nicely.

Hamm’s or this stuff, tough call. Take a can of Hamm’s, dash some food coloring and vanilla extract into it and save yourself the $4 on the 6-pack.

Vanilla aroma and taste, but somewhat artificial like a vanilla flavoerd soda. Not bad but it was not as good as it sounded from the description.

Found this bottled in St. Charles, Illinois. Clear, dark reddish brown pour with a lacy head, a very mild chocolatey nose with a little bit of malt, the flavor is overwhelmingly vanilla extract, a biting, carbonated mouthfeel, and a strong, alcoholic finish. Pretty decent!

Smells like vanilla. Tastes like vanilla extract, with a nice vanilla finish. Could be good, if you really like vanilla. I thought I was drinking melted ice cream.