Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

Multiple pints on draught in one of their large tulip glasses made for this beer. Pours amber with a decent white head. Smells of roses, touches of vanilla, hints of citrus and bourbon, some nuts and biscuits. Tastes of caramel, nuts, some roses, touches of fruit. No woody elements to speak of. Mouthfeel is hearty and the finish is sweet with some earthy tones. Tastes like an ESB to me. Very drinkable but don’t go to this one looking of a big bold bourbon barrel beer with hints of sherry as that’s just not present in this one.

Amber beer, thin off white head. The aroma is all vanilla… seriously, you could use this to bake with. More vanilla than vanilla coke. A touch of sweet caramel in back. Smells and tastes like vanilla cola. So intensely sweet and syrupy that it barely resembles beer anymore. I usually love vanilla character in beer, but this is taking it too far. Light woodiness in back. Probably started as an alright brew, but the vanilla clobbers it into submission.

Cranberry and cedar red hue. Empty nose, with barely noticeable hints of nuts, fruitbread and spices. Up front it’s common maple and light wood flavors, weak on the palate, light without being thin, and the whole oak/bourbon/vanilla thing is only noticed right at the finish. Not terrible by any means, but mediocre and plain.

The Bourbon was hardly detectable in the aroma of this brownish amber brew. Mostly it was vanilla. Thin and sweet with vanilla as the predominant taste, I was glad I got this using a free festival ticket that I was given.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve of Barrel Aged Beers, Chicago, IL 11/04/2006<font size=-1>

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.

Pellucid copper color, thin head and lacing. Nose of cardboard dusted with vanilla, very light. The flavor is thick with vanilla and....umm, some sweet faint malts, no hops noticable. Very 1-dimensional and thin. Nothing to it. Not crisp, nor warming to the core as it claims. Damn that snowman on the cover, he was paid off!

Draft. Poured a clear dark amber with a small creamy white head that diminished quickly but did leave fair lacing. Light roasted malt aroma. Medium body. Light bitter sweet flavor with a short small cask finish.

Bottle from Pat’s. Light coppery color with some vanilla, oak, and malt aromas and flavors, but the body is rather bland, and the complexity and balance are way off. The vanilla seemed to show more as it warmed, but overall this one doesn’t work for me. Still, credit must be given for trying, but no cigar, Augie.