Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

Red copper ale with a thin white head. Light malt aroma, with some vanilla. Light malty taste, with sweet vanilla notes. Watery and boring. On tap at Smokey Bones BBQ, Orlando, 4$ for 22on.

Bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy/frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is clear medium to dark amber. Aroma is lightly malty (caramel, cookie), with notes of vanilla, whisky, corn syrup, wood. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. There are some peculiar things about this one. Not about the beer itself, which is unremarkable, but the bottle. First, the artwork is horrible and the name of the beer is very awkward...this is A-B, so there should be about 1000 times the cost of the beer put into marketing, right? Apparently not. Secondly, the description clearly says (in two places on the label) that it was aged "on" (not "in") oak. I suppose this is an acceptable phrasing, admittedly, but it does amusingly conjure up metal vats of the beer sitting somewhat above a bunch of empty barrels (for what, a few days?). Anyways, besides the funnies, the beer is what you might expect from these micro-like A-B attempts; akin to a crayon-drawn version of an oil painting. Simple, somewhat artificial/fake, soda-like, and clumsy.

12 oz bottle from Woodmans on Gammon Road in Madison, WI (December 2006), consumed at a bit above fridge temperature from a Fitgers pint glass. Jolly what! I say, here are the fine gents at A Busch and sons, ltd, trying their hands at a fine olde English brew! Cheery Charles Dickens and tiny tim and a fine pint by the fire and all that. Well let’s see how this measures up, I must say I’ve got my knickers all twisted over this one! It’s a dull maple colour in the glass with a light bit of puffy head that dies away quickly, and it’s awfully bloody clear, hmm are they putting me on? Something about this makes me think that maybe this didn’t luxuriate in a fine English oak cask for months at a time....well, on to appraise the aroma: well, there’s sodding little vanilla in here, and precious little of anything else, maybe a few buttery toast points but thass about it....perhaps the flavour? well, the vanilla comes out here, plain as my white English arse, but it’s so godawful sweet and syrupy and hit-you-o’er-the-head-with-a-cricket-bat that you can’t taste anything else, except p’raps a bit of sour woody dryness at the finish. You can’t fool me, mates, this is bloody awful and I wants my ’alf a crown back!

Medium malt aroma with some sort of veggy/herb adjunct. Nice amber color with a decent light tan head. Tastes like warm malt and there’s vanilla. Not so sure about the bourbon - it might be 1 flattened cask per million gallons - or not. Nice though. For the price it does not stand up to the majority of artisanal ales, but it’s good stuff. A tiny bit of similarity to AVB Winter Solstice.

Had this on tap at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. Served too cold, so I let it warm up for a while. The body was medium amber with a thin white head. The aroma was light and corny with bourbon and vanilla. Actually, this was a pleasant smelling beer. There is also a nice oak note. The taste is vanilla and peaches. There is also some white Karo syrup. This is way too sweet for my taste.

Bottle and served in my Unibroue glass: Pours a deep reddish brown with a quickly fading head and zero lace. The aroma has notes of vanilla, raisin, prune, caramel malts, liquorice, and heavy yeast esters. Then I took a taste...WTF!...It taste like a bad Coke and whisky mixed drink with no good bourbon character, just booze and sugary sweet syrup. Cloy and a complete mess. Dumped more than half the glass and now attempting to wash to taste out of my mouth. ARGGH, maybe too old, I dunno? The last of my mixer sixer, thank goodness that is over, but u gotta do what u gotta do sometimes.

Poured a just slightly hazed deep amber color with a large off-white head. Malty aroma of toffee and caramel with light vanilla and I guess you can say bourbon. Mostly just malt and vanilla. The flavor was malty with toffee notes and an artificial vanilla taste. Crisp finish with some warmth at the end.

Bottled. Poured a crystal-clear medium orange with a short cap of beige head and some rising carbonation. Nose was certainly sweet with heavy vanilla beans on top of lightly-smoked caramel... some oak splinters and bourbon waft through. Caramel and thick vanilla steal the show in the flavor department, too... very faint bourbon and some woodsy bitterness to accompany the aforementioned sweetness. Medium-bodied on the palate and thicker at the back-end. Fairly smooth, but too heavily skewed toward the sweet side. Tasty, but I couldn’t drink very much of it.