Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

Bottle. Amber-red pour with an off white head. Medicinal aroma...burnt sugar and some oak. The flavor was kinda cream-sodaish, vanilla, coconut...artificial cherry. Light body, overly carbonated with a somewhat creamy finish. Bleh.

this was almost obscenely vanilla pretty damn sweet to boot. there is any bourboun in to me and the beer is very one dimensional and almost artificial in taste. one of there better beers i guess but still sucks.

12oz bottle, waiter didn’t tell me the brewery, label looked like a serious scam off still nacht from far away... but this was disapointing. clear light amber color, quick dark tan head. aromas of fake butterscotch like the masking aromas of chemical plants in NJ near the turnpike. flavor is imitation vanilla, imitation bourbon extract, phenolic and estery. I promised I wouldn’t rate a macro but this scam can’t go on unnoticed! watery mouthfeel.

Sampled February 2007
Pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, creamed amber colored head that fairly quickly disappears. The beer is a brilliantly clear, deep ruby color. The aroma is a mix of cherries, vanilla, touches of boozy bourbon. Really it is predominantly a mix of fruit notes and vanilla and I don’t detect much, if any wood character in the nose.

The beer has a medium to light heft to it, with just a touch of palate coating character. It is quite smooth tasting with the notes of vanilla really coming through, though not in an overwhelming way. It has a light sweetness to it, and a finish that is a mix of caramelized malt and toasty grain notes. A light fruitiness (the cherry is most noticeable again) is here as well, though it seems to be at a lower level than in the aroma. This is interesting, not nearly as bad as I was expecting, though it is not exactly something I would ever try again. In the end it is just a bit too lackluster in character for me to get excited about. It is a solid beer though, and I can see this appealing to the macro-beer drinker who is looking for something interesting.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson, AZ

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a fizzy chestnut color with a large caramel colored head. The aroma was tangy vanilla and root beer. The flavor was strong artificial vanilla followed by an overwhelming bitterness and a toasted marshmallow undertone. The finish is sour, tangy and bitter. There is some effort here but the beer falls short.

Didn’t see the Anheuser-Bush on the label till I got it home. The talk of carmel malts, bourbon barrel aging (it should have tipped me of when it was phrased "Aged ON bourbon barrel oak") and vanilla beans sounded like it was worth trying. A.B. does have a considerable brewing history in this country (wish they would go back to pre-prohabition days) so I figured what the hell. - Poured hard from high into my tall glass the head rose way up then laced slowly down with a nice mahagany color to the brew I actually got my hopes up a little. First few sips I was happy, vanilla was a little strong but with the malty smoothness was kind of nice, pleasureable mouthfeel and somewhat interesting complex of flavours, but the finish just kills it. The vanilla stays too long, too strong. There’s no balance and it’s more like a death than a finish. Not a bad beer, but certainly not a great beer. Glad to see A.B. making a foreay into craftbrewing again but they can certainly do better, a lot better. Maybe this would have been a better brew with a higher ABV to burn off some of the vanilla and warm the finish a bit and age it IN the oak bourbon barrels not in a giant vat with a few shredded barrels worth of oak thrown in. Anyway, it’s drinkable... if your in a low rate saloon that has nothing else give it a try.

Bottle, "Born On 06JAN07." First impression is a nice smell of bourbon and vanilla, but after awhile, it drizzles away to an impression of artificial vanilla flavoring in alcohol. Pours dark brown, little or no head. Taste shows the same artificial vanilla flavor, totally unolike any other vanilla flavored beer I’ve had. Overly carbonated, yet with the watery mouthfeel of root beer flavored Fizzies. Saccharine to boot. A lot of overdone flavors that might have been helped by a higher abv. You’d think a brewer whose biggest sellers were "beechwood aged" might be able to barrel aged beers a little better. Label looks like a Spuds MacKenzie version of last year’s <a href="http://ratebeer.com/beer/samuel-smiths- Smith Winter Welcome label.

Bottle. Pours a copper-red body with a small white head. Strong vanilla aroma, some faint dark fruit, toffee, and plum-ish raisins. Artificial candyish vanilla flavour and toasted bread. Falls apart throughout. Hints of alcohol warmth.