Winters Bourbon Cask Ale
During even the coldest of weather, warm up to the smooth, robust taste of our Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale. Full of rich aromas that you find in the winter months, hints of vanilla and flavorful hops, this is a beer that is great for pouring into a large tulip glass and enjoying with friends around a fireplace.
2.5
642 reviews
St. Louis, United States
Community reviews
Bottle at home, rated against my interpretation of BJCP 2008 guidelines. Aroma: sweet, slightly floral, not overpowering. Appearance: dark amber, almost no head. Taste: very oaky, sweet, hint of alcohol. Palate: seems a little thin, slightly creamy, medium carbonation. Overall: started out ok, gets old quickly, not a huge fan.
well..... I liked it. love the vanilla and bourbon notes. I look for it yearly.
Appearance: clear ruddy, amberish copper with a creamy off-white head and spectacular shimmering lace curtains. Aroma: huge notes of caramel, cream, and vanilla, with some boozy, rummy raisins too; like an unhopped barleywine. Taste: UGH. Extremely sweet, with vanilla almost overpowering notes of crème brulee, brown sugar and caramel. Finish: short, cloying yet watery, and a little woody. Notes: Looked beautiful. Smelled promising, if a little oversweet. Flavors were hugely disappointing--the vanilla sweetness tasted very fake (like extract) and there was no balance to be had. The palate was extremely watery and way too lively for the flavors they were going for. I was really struggling to figure out what was going on with this beer, then I read one of the ratings below, where someone likened it to diet cream soda. Spot on. Really disappointing.
Aroma of a bock beer: pecans and bourbon. Appears red in color. Tastes unpleasant with a greenbean hint. The vanilla lingers which is nice. I’m never doing this again.
t tastes like diet cream soda, how people consider this gack craft beer is beyond me.
Bottle. Deep orange amber, medium golden head that retains poorly. Aroma is weak but nice enough: caramel, vanilla, and a toasted coconut note. Palate is incredibly thin and watery, as though someone secretly took my glass and cut it with water by half. Flavours are weak vanilla caramel. Finish is non-existent. Does Michelob think that people are afraid of flavour? A missed opportunity here.
Reviewed from notes.
Pours a moderate chestnut brown with an off white head. Smells of excess spice and the tiniest bit of bourbon. Taste brings forward a lot of spice with some backing sweetness and hints of caramel and sugar. Mouthfeel is medium and overly spiced. Drinks not nearly as poorly as I thought it would, but is still undesirable.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 10-08-2010
Bottle from helping a friend clear out beers from a Super Bowl party. I never purchase Michelob, but I’ll always try a new beer, so I decided to give this a shot. Pours a clear, auburn body with a quickly dissipating tan head. Smells like Raisinets. A sweet, malt heavy beer that lacks a noticable hop flavor. A flat, unenjoyable, heavy beer.
Vanilla dominates the beer, but the thickness and background of bourbon in it makes a rather good winter ale.
12oz bottle in a shaker. Pours amber with a light head. Aroma bad, like bad bread. Flavor average, with a little oak. Not a lot of flavorful hops like they say. Won’t drink this again.
A: The pour is a clear copper color with almost no head--just a bit of off-white foam popping up as I pour the beer into the glass.
S: Quite the aroma we have here. Lots of metal/iron is noticeable immediately. I also get cough syrup and maraschino cherries along with some fake vanilla flavor. Seems to be some bug spray and tomato vines, too.
T: Just as delicious as it smells. Plenty of metallic tinge, fake vanilla, cough syrup, vegetables, and a strong bitterness. There is a slight bread flavor, which was sort of surprising, I must say.
M: The body is thin and slightly watery with a low to moderate carbonation.
D: Overall quite bad. Not the worst beer I’ve ever had, but certainly near the bottom rung.
12 ounce bottle. Aroma of vanilla, alcohol and nuts. Pours Dark orange with a thin white head. The beer has the bourbon oak barrel taste. Thin, metallic finishing with some abrasive copper notes.
Well, at least it smelled and looked like beer. They are getting closer.... Dreadful followthrough.
One of the Christmas 2010 beers. The color was a deep clear amber. There was no head and not much aroma. There is a lack of malt taste and an undetermined spice. This is a weak winter Ale. Michelob should taste some others Winter Ales to set the standard.
I poured this into my large tulip glass, too bad I don’t have any friends or a fireplace. Clear pale reddish color, thin head fades. Aroma of caramel and vanilla. Taste is weak sauce. A very mild beer, an attempt but a fail. I pretty much knew that when I bought a six pack, but I thought I should give it a shot.
This poured into my wine glass, effervescent, and came up with a good inch of light brown head. A strong hint of vanilla on the nose, color brown, and clear, and the first sip hits with a strong vanilla, to slight banana flavor, that gives way to a hint of bourbon... medium sweetness, medium body, soft carbonation, and long finish, with the vanilla being the dominant flavor that lingers. Overall? I like this. I would not like this all the time. But as a change of pace, and a nice Christmas/Winter time treat, with some strong cheese, perhaps - I think it goes well with some hot buttered popcorn - I enjoy it and will have some again, after this six is gone!
On tap at Barley and Hops. Pours a ruddy brown color with a medium beige head. A sweet malty nose. A smooth rich malty flavor, very light vanilla, no bourbon really. Caramel. OK.
Maybe because it is so cold outside, maybe because of the snowman on the label... but I like this one. Sure, it doesn’t really taste like beer (the vanilla is a bit strong) but for what it is, it’s yummy... like a cookie. In fact, I think this might almost be better warmed up.
Thin off white head; color is a pleasingly translucent orange brown; aroma has hints of malt and vanilla. Taste is malty sweet with a lusicious overtone of vanilla and a hint of the bourbon cask. Aftertaste is appropriately bitter. Who cares who makes it? Enjoy!
This beer is better than some are giving it credit for. I know Inbev makes it, but every once in a while a dog finds a bone. I
did have this on tap....maybe thats the difference. The beer has good weight in your mouth and a smooth creamy vanilla bean taste. Not much bouquet or finish otherise I would have scored higher.
Light white head. Spicy aroma, with a flavor that matches. The hop content here is minimal, with a crisp, big-red like finish.
Bottle. Deep amber with almost no head. Light malt aroma and a hint of egg. Weak malt flavor with a hint of spice. I don’t get any bourbon/oak at all. Thin, watery mouth feel. Overall weak, pretty much what I expected from a large scale producer.
12oz. Bottle: Aroma of sweet malt, light vanilla, and a hint of caramel. There is a hint of bile/vomit in the aroma too. Poured copper/amber in color with a small to medium-sized, loose, tan head that greatly diminished but lasted throughout. Clear. Lightly sparkling. Flavor is lightly sweet. Tastes of malt, nuts, slight vanilla, slight caramel, fake Bourbon, and some noxious flavors. Medium body. Lightly dry, lightly sticky texture. Average carbonation. Malt, vanilla, nut, and fake Bourbon finish is lightly dry. Ew.
Dark pour with a small off white head. Aroma is malty. Flavor is a little unusual. Burnt malts with spice. Dry finish of vanilla. Not great but much better than the comparable Michalob Amber Bock.
Mmmm, cream soda! From a growler it gets a great head atop a clear amber bod. Light aroma, kind of thin mouthfeel. It’s sweet at first with definite vanilla. Neither bourbon nor oak, and not a lot of heft. The back end has enough hops to pull back on the sweetness, but still, it’s not that good, and not warming.
Amber color with fragrant caramel malt aroma. Taste is caramel malt and lots of vanilla. Vanilla is definitely forefront and really so much so that it’s hard to pick up on anything else; kind of distracting. That being said the vanilla tastes pretty decent and this is definitely drinkable; probably wouldn’t want to have more than one per session though. Rather thin body. I won’t buy it again, but it isn’t terrible.
12 ounce bottle - $1.79 at Total Wine & More in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Appearance: Pours a spotlessly clear, dark mahogany-hued body with a medium-small, bone white head.
Smell: Sweet-scented aroma smelling of toasty, toffeeish malts, heavy-handed vanilla extract, and a few discard sweet cherries dunked in garden variety bourbon.
Taste: The malts, while not particularly bold or complex, do yield touches of toasted nuts and toffee with a vanilla taste which reminds me of freeze-dried ice cream. A fairly sweet beer throughout. Underlying cherry-like fruitiness. No discernible hop character and bitterness. Slight woody, earthy tones accompanied by a faint astringency. Lingering taste of vanilla extract beyond the sweetish finish that hangs on the tongue like a bad piece of vanilla-flavored candy.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation.
Drinkability: While easy to drink, it’s not particularly enjoyable to. While a bourbon barrel-aged, vanilla-infused brown ale sounds like a great winner of an idea, the execution was, well, less than even hoped for.
12 oz bottle. Clear brown with a beige head. Nose is cardboard, faint spice and bourbon. Surprisingly this has some body to it. Carb is crisp and lively. Taste is toffee, vanilla, musty cinnamon and stale bourbon.
Had at Hog’s Head on Fullerton. It does have a bit of spice to it. But is there really bourbon in it or was it aged in casks? Watery and kind of a mess.Promises much and doesn’t really do anything. A-B InBev, if you are going to attempt to break in to the craft beer world you must try harder than this. Serving: Tap
bottle from tops on 12/19/2009.
brilliant clear coppery bronze color with an aggressive light tan head. no lace.
it smells like fake vanilla, sticky caramel malt, light spices and alcohol (at 6%???).
the flavor of oily artificial vanilla dominates over a ton of caramel-y malt and a lightly bitter finish... very one dimensional.
the medium body has an aggressively crisp texture and some how an oily residual mouth feel. bleh. 4/3/4/2/11/2.4