Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

On draft at Maloneys in Flag, was a perfect match to the lousy cheating Cowboys as they and the Refs beat the Packers on Thursday Night Football. The pour was brown with amberish hues, weak initial head with no retention. The aroma was vanilla and some herbal notes, an odd combo. The flavor was vanilla extract, even more vanilla extract and artificial nasty vanilla flavoring, like a vanilla snow cone mixed with beer. Caramel sweet malts partly detectable amidst the VANILLA phoniness (I thought I had recalled a few good review and near at-a-boys for AB on this one, but even if it has more flavor than a standard AB product, why in the world would anyone recommend this to anyone? ICK!). Mouthfeel was thin and light, but this was bad sugar water, vanilla snow cone pre-mix. Alas, at least I finished it, despite the waitress offering to get me a different beer after a few sips.

Poured from a tap at a wedding I attended. Uncommonly red in color. Strange mix of vanilla and nut flavors. VERY sweet. TOO sweet. Seems like they just mixed a bunch of sweet junk together without regard to structure or balance.

Pour is nice crisp amber with a thin tan head...smell is very sweet with vanilla and caramel the whole way through...taste is sweet vanilla and caramel, almost candy like...overly sweet, but a good effort...

12oz bottle a few months old. pours a deep mahogony with small head. aroma is just awful, some combination of spice, vanilla, and a medicinal scent with undertone of bourbon. the aroma is sickening. oh the flavor is much worse. way off balance with loads of vanilla extract flavor that makes me gag. can’t taste much bourbon. but please don’t make me take another sip. okay, maybe i was prepared for a second sip cuz it wasn’t the worst thing ever but still, dag yo, this is nasty. i’m done. the vanilla flavor is so over powering i can’t taste anything else. it’s like cutting vanilla extract with a few ounces of water. i hate this. after 2 sips i’m done. luckily my drain can handle the rest.

I have a dozen or so Winter/Christmas brews lined up to drink and decided to include this beer from Anheuser-Busch just to be fair... Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale pours a clear red-copper color with a respectable foamy off-white head. There is a mild to moderate level of visible carbonation. Vanilla dominates the aroma with a hints of wood in the background. The most apropos description of the flavor that comes to mind is vanilla cream soda. After the initial flood of vanilla, some light roasted caramel maltiness and wood chip flavors surface. The flavor is moderately sweet and finishes somewhat more dry. Medium palate, not overly carbonated, slightly watery from time to time. Overall this really isn’t a terrible beer. Yes, it might be gimmicky and nothing spectacular, but at least the macrobreweries are trying to make something different. I can’t fault them for that... 12 oz bottle. Born on date: 13OCT06 DE77.

The tap handle reads "Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale", though I don’t know who "Winter" is... Caramel brown body, with a thickish, though short-lived head. Nose is sweet, caramel, mixed with vanilla, a bit of bourbon, but vanilla is king, here. Taste is short and sweet, slick wih the caramel and toffee, a hint of the vanilla and honey, but then it’s off the palate until next sip... Very light in the finish, medium at best in the body.... Had at the Nomad World Pub, tonight...the manager, and the bartender, were both apologetic about this selection. Not a beer I would order with any confidence, or enjoy with any thoroughness...not bad, mind you, but...eh...at least they’re trying...

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO AGE THIS <P> Very nice looking beer here. It has a luminescent amber color with a lasting and creamy off white head that is a full thumb thick, though it does fade fairly quickly. <P> The aroma is dusty and vague...hard to quantify beyond saying it smells like any dusty corner of any forgotten room in your house. <P> The initial sip is vanilla, lightly oak and bourbon accented and thin and watery. I am not an A-B basher. I know for a fact they can make good beer...I’ve tasted it. This just isn’t it. It’s timid and what flavor that is concentrated is syrupy...rather they used syrup or not, they got a syrup effect. <P> It is also still and thin which hurts the enjoyment of the beer drinking experience. A-B can make drinkable craft-style beers. This just isn’t one of them

Bottle. Lightly woody, mocha-tinged nose with some nice vanilla wafting, though the overall effect is like syrup added to sodapop. Deep orange-amber pour with a clingy beige-tan head. Taste of corn and grain is strong enough to overwhelm anything else they try to add, and the syrupy corn aftertaste is just as bad. Thin-bodied slop.