Michelob Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale

I was on a macro-brew-trying-to-be-a-craft-brew kick the other day and saw this in the store and figured I had to try it.  I tried this the same night as the Budweiser American Ale and some to-be-blogged Full Moon Winter Ale.  I have to say that Michelob Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale might have been my favorite of the bunch and about the only one I would actually buy again… which surprised the hell out of me, to be honest.

Most surprising is the fact that the “hint of vanilla” actually doesn’t suck.  You usually get that really artificial vanilla taste when you get stuff with a “hint” but this one actually pulls it off.  It is sweet but balanced and very drinkable. 

From start to finish: no nose>small head>sweet body>short finish. 

Of note is the fact that the bottle says “aged on bourbon oak casks”… not in… “on”.  So that is a bit of smoke and mirrors, but what can you do… it still tastes good.   **Update** this is actually pretty common to either reinvigorate the oak flavor in oak barrels or just to add oak flavor into a brew.  More commonly called aging on oak staves.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Budweiser American Ale

I have been waiting to taste and blog this one for a bit and someone at work posted an article about it on my door that made me want to speed things up a bit.  It had some comparisons with this and Alaskan Amber and showed some other macro vs. micro comparisons.  It rated the Bud American Ale as a 6 and the Alaskan Amber as a 7 and I had to taste this for myself to see if it was really that close to an outstanding amber ale (a 7 is too low, IMO).  

So, here you go: Budweiser American Ale

First things first… their website is top shelf.  The spent some dollars and have a really slick site with some nice videos of the brewing process.  Definitely worth taking a look at, if nothing else but to notice the scale of the operations that they are dealing with.  It is almost too big to comprehend when you see some of the tanks they are using.

So, the beer… pours a nice amber color with a good sized beige head.  Zero to barely any nose on it.  The body, though, has something.  You can definitely taste the malts… way more than the hops and believe me, the bottle says “hoppy finish” but that is just plain not right.   Unless, maybe, you drink a Bud Light first and then go to this… then it may be somewhat relatively hoppy but I couldn’t taste it.  At 5.3% ABV, this beer isn’t too light weight and that is what makes it interesting.  While the hops aren’t really there, the body is mild and smooth and quite easy to drink.  Enough so that if the price weren’t quite so high, this may be a beer I would actually buy again.  But for the same price, you can get some good local craft beers, so that moves this to Middle of the Road.

Not a bad direction to be headed in, though… if they want to really get closer to craft brew territory, they have their work cut out for them, but lets see where this takes them.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale

Another beer from the “beer tasting” the other night.  I took notes on this one knowing that I would need them later…   Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale comes to us from Anheuser-Busch… those crazy guys that try to be craft brewers but generally end up not able to seperate themselves from the macro lifestyle. 

They have done it again, offering a mediocre seasonal ale that promises a lot in the brand and delivers none of it.  No pumpkin… not in the nose, body, or finish.  Not really any spice… not in the nose, body, or finish.  Just a slightly roasted malty brew with some small semblence of hops to make you think you are getting something worthy of the price they charge.

I would put this right on par with the Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale… definitely Middle of the Road.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Beach Bum Blonde Ale

I just happened to see this beer at Albertson’s today while picking up some teriyaki for dinner and decided I needed to give it a try – Beach Bum Blonde Ale.  I am always intigued by the big American breweries and their dabbling in smaller runs and specialty beers.  I figured this one would go the same way Wild Blue did and go straight to the bottom of the list…

I was actually quite wrong this time around and very happy about that.  It went quite well with the teriyaki, first of all (they should put *that* on their fact sheet).  Second, though, you really couldn’t taste any of the undertones they did mention on the fact sheet.

This is a solid mild beer that won’t have you begging for more but will have you ready to have another.  The initial pour was great, high head and stayed with me for a while.  The color is a deep orange gold… very appealing.  The nose is mild and unassuming.  The taste is smooth and mellow, kind of like drinking a warm cream soda but without the sweet and with 5.4% ABV.  Very simple finish but not bad by any means.

Overall, this isn’t the beer to end all beers or anything, but it is a good solid beer that doesn’t taste like piss and keeps it real enough to leave me wishing I had purchased a 6 pack instead of one bottle.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Bud Light Lime

I headed into this a bit scared after my last foray into flavored Budweiser territory… <shiver>.  But, I had a little faith since I bought a six pack this time.  We were having mexican for dinner, so I figured I would pick something that would go good with tacos… Bud Light Lime seemed like a logical choice.

I must admit… second macro of the week that I actually don’t mind.  This one, in fact, is pretty decent… as far as lagers go, they put enough lime in there to cover up the shittiness that normally is Bud Light and made it drinkable.  I couldn’t stand it by itself, but with this amount of lime… they even did a good job of balancing how strong vs. sweet it is.  I think I posted yesterday about how flavored beer needed a good base beer or else it was doomed… this one bucks this, proving an exception to every absolute.

The beer itself is light, clean looking, tastes and smells a good deal like lime.  Tastes a good deal like lime, too, which saves it.  If I had this next to the Miller Chill, I am not sure which would win… but neither taste to bad to me. 

They even have a free remix and ring tone of “Lights Out” by Santogold.  Might as well go and grab it… free always = good.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Shock Top Belgian White

Been taking a bit of a much needed family vacation over the past several days.  We are staying at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA.  I tell you, this place is pretty damn cool.  They have done a bunch of things right and we are already planning for a return trip next year.  In a nutshell, the water-park is really, really cool (although the 42″ height restriction on the tubes sucks), the MagiQuest interactive game is really, really cool, the arcade is good (although a huge $$ suck), and the food hasn’t been too bad at all.  They even offered me up a new beer from our friends at Anheuser-Busch. 

Shock Top Belgian White looked, from afar, to be a new craft brew that I hadn’t heard of.  At the end of the day, though, it came through as another macro brewery trying to diversify their flavors… and I have to tell you… I think they pulled it off.  It could have been that I was in beer withdrawals and this just happened to be the first beer I tasted, but I don’t think that is it.

The glass I had was at the actual restaurant in the hotel (not the buffet).  I ordered a 20 oz. for $4.50 (a good deal) and quickly thought well of it.  It came with an orange slice and a small head, but as far as drinkable beer goes, this wasn’t too bad at all… my biggest complaint, if you are going to go with the technical review, would be that they shouldn’t call this a Belgian White… there is likely zero Belgian yeast used here.  They should just call it a Hefeweizen.  It’s color is more yellow, its taste is definitely on the wheaty unfiltered side.  There just isn’t anything Belgian about it.

So, again, as far as beer goes, this is good beer.  Easy to drink and the right price.  If you are a technical beer drinker, though, you would give this a hateful rating because it isn’t true to its style in the least.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Budweiser Chelada

Budweiser Chelada… specifically the one with Clamato.  This one has been sitting in my fridge since at least 3/9.  I have been dreading opening it… a little bit due to the large number of Caesar cocktails I had in Whistler just before this time, and little because I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t like it… well… I was right.  Two words = Nas ty.  I think it has a little bit to do with the smell… if I held my nose and went in, the taste was bad… if I took a whiff before the drink then I had a hard time swallowing it.  I ended up even trying to put a little green Tabasco in there, but that didn’t really do any good.  Overall, the red color was disturbing, the smell was horrific, and the taste wasn’t good.  

I have no recommendations on this one… never again.

As an FYI… I was talking with Mauld at work today and he had some good experiences with cerveza preparada or chelada style beer in Mexico recently.  I have to agree that it sounds good that way… this just doesn’t do the trick, folks.

JBB6 Rating: Not Even for Free