This is Anheuser Busch's attempt at a bourbon cask ale. I wonder if they aged the batch entirely in a bourbon cask or added chunks of the cask to the ferments like the do with the beachwood. I was in Schlafly's cellar for the Homebrew Competition and saw their old bourbon casks, I was told they won't be used again and will be distributed as promotional material for the brewery and the distillery that they got the barrels from.
There isn't much smell to this Bourbon cask ale. A basic sweet malt smell with only a hint of bourbon. The color is a clear brown that is a bot on the orange side. The foam is very low, only a litter ring around the edges, it poured with some activity, but died down before long.
The taste has some bourbon flavors but they are poorly balanced. There is some sweet malt taste that is ok with the bourbon since bourbon is sweet. But there isn't much else to the beer beyond the bit of bourbon taste, it's too thin to be paired with the bourbon, very much like the Kentucky Ale Bourbon barrel. There is some bitterness to the beer, but it goes poorly against the bourbon taste.
Like the Kentucky Ale, if you want to use bourbon casks you need to make a big beer. Lots of malt and rich flavors. Throwing any old beer in a bourbon cask doesn't make a good beer. Like last nights beer, just because it has Christmas label doesn't mean its a Christmas beer.
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