Winters Bourbon Cask Ale

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

Pours amber with a one finger off white head. Aroma a little vanilla, sweet malt. Flavor is caramel, vanilla, and some toasted marshmallow. Better than I expected.

Draft: Clear copperish color with a smaller off-white head. Virtually no aroma other than a malty sweetness and some hints of vanilla. Taste is more sweeter with vanilla and malt, hints of bitter. Thin body and not much character.

(Bottle) Pours a reddish color with small head. Some vanilla in the aroma, with strong ’cotton-candy’ notes in the taste. Lots of carbonation. Sweet and unbalanced, but not bad if you like cream soda. An interesting brew, but not very good overall.

Better than a lot of "big" brewery attempts at craft brewing. Carbonation was very low and head was almost non-existant. As a result, the taste was a little flat (due to lack of carbonic acid and no bubbles to tease the tongue). Vanilla bean & bourbon flavors are balanced nicely with the hops and malts. Hope they get the carbonation problem fixed soon. ($6.73 per 6-pack here)

Bottle from Wal-Mart poured into lager glass - Pours amber with a 1 finger fizzy tan head; Overpowering vanilla, a hint of bourbon, and maybe hazelnut? to the nose; Reminds me of the artificial vanilla syrup I put in my Dr. Pepper at Quick Trip; Vanilla and oak on the initial taste; Vanilla, some kind of sweet malt, and a bit of spice on the backtaste; Nice creamy medium palate with pleasant carbonation; I would’ve rated this beer much higher, but the vanilla is just WAY too overpowering. I can sense the bourbon and oak notes, but it’s so slight that you alomost can’t even count it. Age it for a while longer next time around and maybe it’ll get better. Definitely the best A-B beer I’ve had though.

Pours a deep yet clear copper color with a nice growing foaming head that quickly dissipates. Very effervescent in appearance with a musky earthy aroma. Sour, woody, apple flavor, with a bitter vanilla undertone; dry & grassy. Would probably get more satisfaction by opening the cupboard above the stove and chewing on a bunch of herbs, spices and them vanilla beans mom got you from her trip to mexico.

Picked up this brew since I didn’t have a wide selection at the store I was at outside of the standard Bud, Coors and Miller...just cracked one open and was immediately overwhelmed by the strong vanilla aroma, which was remarkably pleasant. The bourbon ’hint’ is evident immediately upon hitting the palate, but quickly dissolves into a watery, flavor-lacking brew. Carbonation is high. After a few swigs, I took another gander at the bottle and noticed it was an AB product, which explains just about everything. Would question the ’limited edition’ tag as well...not the best, but would take this over a Bud or Bud Light any day and twice on Sunday...

An OK attempt by AB. You can definintally taste the vanilla as well as the bourban from the brewing process. Really thought it was good when I had it on tap, but didn’t like it as much in the bottle.