Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

Bottle. This accually is not a bad beer, it just has way too much artificial vanilla flavor to it. Deep orange in color with fizzy tan head. The flavor was malty and smooth but the vanilla flavor started to make me sick after awhile. Taste like alcoholic cream soda.

This isn’t great, but I would love to sneak it into a blind tasting and see how it does--it is definitely suffering from an anti-Bud mentality. On tap at Barleys. The pour is a see through golden brown. Tangy vanilla scent from the glass, but not a lot of aroma overall. Medium palate. The flavor starts off with vanilla and some roasted malt. It is a littel watery and has no real bourbon flavors to speak of. However, it is not a terrible beer at all--and I will agree with Metalhead’s comments below that this is better than most of the stuff rolling out of Sam Adams brewery.

I can’t understand why so many people hate this. Perhaps because it’s the "Bud" brewer. Cut em some slack. It’s deep amber with a mild head,aroma is mild malt and vanilla(bourbon cask nowhere to be found in aroma or taste). Flavor is mild sweet malt and vanilla. Decent enough mouthfeel for a macrobrew. actually pretty smooth.Better that 90% of the Sam Adams stuff so I give em an E for effort. Goes well with honey roasted nuts. Not bad for grocery store beer. Worth a shot.

Bottle. Didn’t have that bad of an aroma, vanilla. The downside is it’s pretty weak, like they just took Budweiser and added vanilla extract, too carbonated, but I enjoyed it none the less.

Bottle. Coppery with a thin nearly white head. Aroma is sweet with some vanilla, very little bourbon, and no roasted malt. The vanilla flavor is evident and is good, not much for bourbon flavors, and a lot of caramel sweetness. A little cherry cough syrup in the background. Fairly low carbonation and a light mouthfell that still hides the alcohol completely. Not complex by any means, but very drinkable. As with all A-B beers, ratings will suffer from the "I hate big breweries" mentality.

Pours a watery looking translucent burgundy-brown color. Produces an inital loose, fluffy tan head which quickly dissapates to a spotty, wispy film. Aroma is definitely dominated by the vanilla bean which seems authentic (as opposed to an artificially infused aroma). If you like tha aroma of vanilla bean in an ale this will seem somewhat pleasing and authentic. Some aromas of spices and toasted malts also appear faintly in the background. Mouthfeel is very disappointing for a beer of this style. Very thin and watery; no heft or body whatsoever. Weak and wimpy. Flavor starts out with some nice notes of vanilla bean, allspice, nutmeg, and roasted malts but unfortunately quickly trancends into a somewhat medicinal finish. I ended up blending one of these with an Anchor 2006 OSA and one with one of my homebrewed 9.2% abv English Strong Ales which rescued it to some extent. Try one if you so desire, but pass on a whole sixer like I did.

Had this one at the Blues v. Sabres game tonight. Poured a red with a medium white head. Aroma is somewhat malty, lots of vanilla in there, as well as some wood esters and mild hop citrus. Flavor is...interesting. The vanilla is kind of nice, and you can taste the barrell, which is nice. I think if they would have given this treatment to a better base, say an Amber Bock or a Bareknuckle (I said better, not good), they might have been on to something. As it stands the weak, watery base works hard against the beers few good character points. There are hints of malts, hops, and even yeast (shocking!), but it’s heavily watered down, undoubtedly in an attempt to remain palateable to this brewer’s target audience of watery fizz drinkers. At least (lowest ranked) St. Louis beat (highest ranked) Buffalo.

Stumbled across a six pack of this at the local supermarket, so being the ratings whore that I am, I decided to pick up a sixer and give this a try. Pours an amber color with a thin white head. The aroma is dominated by the vanilla beans, with only the bourbon barrel breaking thru on the finish of the beer. Too bad this wasn’t sold in singles, because now I’m giving away the other fiver beers. This wasn’t worth the effort.