Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak
Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak features distinct vanilla, caramel and aged oak flavors for a full-bodied, well-balanced taste and warm aroma. Celebrate Vanilla Oak is brewed using two-row barley, caramel malts, carapils malts as well as imported hops. It is aged on whole vanilla beans and bourbon barrel oak. Ideally served with dessert or as an after-dinner drink, Celebrate Vanilla Oak is also enjoyed in a snifter, allowing the beer’s aromas to be intensified.
2.7
195 reviews
St. Louis, United States
Community reviews
Comes in a tiny, twist-off 7floz bottle. Marked as Michelob Celebrate Oak-Aged Dark Vanilla at 10%. I really can’t find anything bad about this beer (other than the small bottle size and the twist-off). Pours an opaque brown color with no real head to speak of. Some alcohol legs run down the sides of the glass. Aroma is of banana, vanilla, figs, oak, sugar and chocolate. Has a smell that I could best describe as a mix between an Eisbock and a Belgian Quad. Taste is of vanilla, chocolate and banana, and is very upfront and bold with all three (a bit unrefined). Oak comes on in the finish. Goes down creamy smooth (as expected from a 10%). Bubbles are very soft. Alcohol isn’t well hidden. Pretty good beer overall, I wish A-B would make more stuff of this quality.
Better than the chocolate, but not all that great. Too much to ask for a brewer of this size to make something like this taste great. Just too sweet and not well balanced.
In the torpedo and in the wine bottle. I get these yearly and have tried them aged and fresh. It has a amber glow with a quickly dissolving thin head. It has an overwhelming vanilla aroma and flavor. It is too sweet to drink more then 2 glasses . If you can imagine a super sweet barley wine this is it. I took one to a wine tasting . It was interesting watching wine drinkers try to decipher what kind of “wine” this was.
Bottle from a neoghbors collection. Reddish pour with thin off white head. Syrupy aroma with hints of vanilla. A little sweet for me and thin. Brown sugar finish. I was not crazy about it.
I had this bottle before it was released. I had a sample at the FOBAB in 2005, didn’t bother rating, but when the fest was over, the A-B rep let me have an unopened bottle (or did I just lift it? Who can remember?) This gem sat in my cellar for a year until I broke it out at a tasting. Here are the notes from 2006. Golden color. Aroma is primarily vanilla with some spice, but mostly vanilla. Taste is very sweet with lots of vanilla & wood on the finish. This is so cloying that it is hard to drink. I remember not liking this when I had it a year ago, thinking it was cloyingly sweet with too much vanilla. A year has not helped.
Ample bottle from Budweiser rep. Not half bad! Big nose of vanilla and oak. Very creamy and smooth on the palet.
Sampled from 2006 vintage torpedo bottle found in a basement. Vanilla extract nose. Similar body.
Sampled from 2006 vintage torpedo bottle, courtesy of brewfiend. Pours a clear copper amber brew with a fast dissolving white head that disipates to a white ring and some film top Aroma of herbal spice, vanilla, a touch of wintergreen, and dried oak wood. Taste is medium bodied, light carbonation with flavors of caramel malt, some flowery hop and a touch of vanilla. Finish is slightly metalic, dry with a wood and vanilla aftertaste. Just like its chocolate version, It’s different.
Tasted at Churchill’s with Ivan, Tim, Aaron, and Dave. I think Ivan broke out this 2005 2yr old gem. Some melanoidin. Very mellow and soft for a 10% beer. Small head. Vanilla is noticable, but probably subdued from the age. I’m sure this one’s under-rated because of the Michleob name, and should be rated blind. Pretty nice 3.7-3.9.
10/5/07 From the bottle. Aroma is complex and clashes a little with notes of alcohol, candilike sweetness, vanilla and dark dried fruit. Appearance is clear reddish tan with no head. Flavor is sweet vanilla malt forward with some raisiny character and light alcohol. Mouthfeel is full bodied, slightly creamy with a medium carb feel. Overall, this is a bit strange, but could probably get pretty good with some aging.
All alcohol in the nose. Light amber color with a small head. Initial vanilla going into a slight alcohol burn and finishing with a imitation vanilla flavor that lasts with a slight amount of alcohol still coming though. Weak palate.
Too much vanilla flavor. Tastes kinda like cream soda. A little oak. some malt.
24oz bottle(2006)-A medium amber body with a nice medium head that dissipated into a small ring. Aroma of bourbon and alcohol with vanilla on the back end. Taste of vanilla and bourbon with the alcohol coming on the back end. Better than ’05 and a pretty decent brew from AB all considering. Now if they could brew beer like this all the time.
Name: Michelob Celebrate Vanilla
Date: 11/04/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Bend Brewing
muddy amber, whispy beige head, bits of drippy lace, huge sweet vanilla aroma along with some sweet fruity malt, sweet malt flavor, lots of vanilla character, oak shows up in the finish and adds a bitter edge, gets tiresome quickly
Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 10/20
Rating: 2.7/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: **/4
(bottle - 24 oz: 2005 vintage) Cloudy copper color with not much of a head. Aroma is very sweet and sticky with lots of oak, vanilla, bubblegum, and some cookie dough. Lots of sweet malts. Overly sweet flavor with tons of vanilla, malts, plums, alcohol, bubble gum, and a ton of smoke flavor at the end. Very complex but way too sweet. Alcohol very present.
Cloudy brown color. No head and no visible carbonation. Vanilla and plum aroma, but no hops noticed. Medium palate with more carbonation than was seen from the glass. Definite vanilla bean and suble molasas flavor. No hops, no bitterness. A peat like flavor, unique like a beer blended with whisky or scotch. Very good. When the professionals at A-B are given the OK to show creativity and actually use some quality ingredients - they can deliver.
artillery shell from Gomers of Kansas. Pors a nice dark amber with vanishing head. Very vanilla on the nose. There is a lot of vanilla in the taste with a little oak in there as well. I can get a little sense of the alcohol after aged for 7 months in a cellar. This would be a nice one to drink during the next holiday season.
Bullet Bottle. Poured a clear amber in color with a white, fizzy, rapidly depleting head. Aroma is of all vanilla, with no beer or oak detected. When I tasted the beer, it was no suprise that it was almost the same. All vanilla. I drank this beer at near room temp. so this wasn’t such a bad thing, just not a good thing either.
The 24 ounce artillery shell shaped bottle poured a sparkling clear dark amber colored beverage with a small fizzy off-white head that was completely gone in 2 minutes (due to the high alcohol content, maybe?). The aroma was sweet and malty with lots of caramel vanilla and banana presence. I was almost unable to find even a hint of the so called oak present in the name. The body was medium with a soft carbonation and a soft, silky smooth texture. The flavor starts out very sweet - this is where the vanilla really stands out - and stays that way through the medium length finish. It is too sweet for my taste ... like drinking a pop. There is a decided alcohol warmth in the upper chest at the end.
Torpedo-shaped bottle, 24 oz. Did not like this at all...I think Anheuser-Busch should stick to plain Michelob. I bought this in a gift pack and I have enjoyed the two glasses that came with it much more than I enjoyed this and the accompanying chocolate stout-type bottle.
We almost didn’t get it.. rumor was it was awful but when all is sain and done it was GREAT!! Dark, sweet. Jeff, John, Dad, me and Vin drank out the bottle and a screw top how great... Happy 125!!
Vanilla and oak in the nose. Creamy caramel toffee and vanilla flavors with some wood and odd metallic notes creeping into the finish.
7 oz. single, from Whole Foods LaJolla. Wow, now this is unexpected from the AB Michelob brand. This oak-aged, high alcohol specialty brew pours a hazy medium chestnut color with a small beigey head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is dominated by the oak, vanilla and alcohol (no surprise) with brown sugar, faint nutmeg and barely discernable grassiness mingled with wet wood. Flavor is sweet with more brown sugar, vanilla and wood, an interesting mix of light spice and vegetal herb flavors, with an alcohol tingle in the finish and down the throat. Drinks like a barleywine - though one that’s a bit unbalanced. Full body and very little carbonation on the tongue. Not too bad actually, but I must include that I’m rating it right out of the fridge before it warms and becomes more toxic (see DarkElf’s comments below). I’m trying to be careful not to include an anti-AB bias in this rating. At the same time I’m imagining the surprise of a typical Michelob drinker cracking one open expecting just a sweetened version of their usual beer and getting knocked on their butts by this beefed up brew (tee hee).
2006 vintage, 24 oz bottle. Pours hazy orangish color with white head. Aroma vanilla and nothing else, same with the taste, alcohol warming with dry finish. I am glad I got two snifter in the gift set.
Bottle...or suppository...you be the judge. This one poured a crimson-orange color with a off white head. The alluring aroma of circus peanuts hits when I realize...it’s not JSUT orange marshmallow circus peanuts...but as if someone doused the dreaded things in vanilla extract! The flavor also holds simliar elements: vanilla extract coupled with Splenda malts and other artifical flavors...and wood chips. Soft mouthfeel...somewhat creamy mid-way with a terrific medicinal finish. Oddly enough it tastes very similar to that awful Winter Cask stuff that AB also does. Honestly, I’d rather just drink a bud-light if I had to choose. For those counting...this was #500
Chestnut colored with almost no head. Aroma definitely has vanilla, but I cannot smell much else. Taste is like a flat cream soda, and alcohol is not particularly apparent. I wanted to like this product despite it rating and pedigree. Not worth the $10/24oz, but I did it for science.
Gift set. The same thing as the chocolate one except vanilla. Aroma and flavor was strictly vanilla. Nothing special.
2006 x-mas set...red amber no head present...smells heavy syrupy, very mild oak muddled...instant sweetness, vanilla present...6.5 for flavor would be ideal but I can’t give this a half score so i went ahead with the 7...well done Michelob, well done, an unexpected delight...easy going for the 10% that it is, although the finish is very tainted with pure alcohol
Ick, tastes like shitty cough syrup. Had this one year, then another, it really sucks. Alcohol taste to strng, vanilla, not so, well, vanilla. This does not deserve the rating it has. People just think they are getting a luxury product and rate accordingly. The power of marketing amazes me.
Bottle (Thanks John, you ass): The bottle appears to be shaped like a suppository and quickly earns the name Anal Bombshell. The beer pours a bloody stool color, with a white head. It smells of an assy sweetness, some alcohol, and some brown malts. The delicate flavors of vanilla extract, oak tree excrement, stale assy malts, and wood chips, it’s as if the brewer used an oak funnel to pour this into his own ass before bottling by shoving the bottle up there. In the end it really wasn’t that bad, but it just tasted like a fake oak aged beer. Too much vanilla extract, and you could tell it was oak chips, not the real thing.