Bell's Planet Series: Neptune - The Mystic
With Neptune, our Planets Series comes to an end. Inspired by one of Larry Bell’s old homebrew recipes and the music of Gustav Holst, this complex, strong and spiced Imperial Stout offers prominent herbal notes along with flavors of chocolate, roasted malt, licorice/anise and pepper with a touch of heat. Reminiscent of a mystical creation brewed in days gone by, this beer is a good candidate for aging due to the robust characteristics of its ingredients.
Ale brewed with black pepper, hickory bark, dandelion root, spices, molasses, and maple syrup with cayenne peppers, star anise, raisins and dates added.
Ale brewed with black pepper, hickory bark, dandelion root, spices, molasses, and maple syrup with cayenne peppers, star anise, raisins and dates added.
3.8
171 reviews
Comstock, United States
Community reviews
Dark opaque black brown, light tan. Lots of spices, anise perhaps most present, subtle molasses sweetness. Very complex nose. Bitter, sweet. Exceedingly long finish, heavy oily body, quite a lot of alcohol. Good.
At drowland’s amazing symphony listening planets tasting! So awesome! Crazy beer for the finish. No pluto??? It was a weird, but tasty spiciness in it that brought a level up for an normal big imperial. Big chocolate and anise. Quite the finish.
Pours a dark purplish brown with a chocolate colored head. Very oily looking and on the palate. Aromas of cinnamon and licorice. Flavors of bitter chocolate, black and chili peppers, sorgum and minerals. The peppery spice on the finish give it some nice depth. Flavors definitely opened up as it got closer to room temperature.
Black pour. Small tan head. No lacing. Muddled spice aroma. Sweet spicy taste. A little strange.
Where and how: tasting, bottle 355ml
Aroma: soft, smoky with mild rounded deep dark character. Quiet smoky secondary impressions. Good refined alcoholic heat.
Appearance :
Top: tanned creamy cap, some lace shown. 3+
Base: dark brown
Palate : softer mid bodied smoky stout.
Taste: Chocolate, chili, mineral hints wrapped with nice rounded heat. Very interesting creation.
Aroma: roasty, licorice, molasses, raisins
Appearance: black with a brown head
Taste: medium sweetness, medium bitterness, a bit of head from the peppers
Palate: medium body, creamy, soft carbonation, long finish,
Delicious
Sample at the Far Out! Space Tasting #2 on 10/01/2015. Jet black color with a medium tan head that diminishes gradually. Patchy lacing on the glass. Aroma of roast malt, dark chocolate and dark fruit. Medium to full body with flavors of charred malt, black licorice and chocolate. The finish is burnt malt and anise. Pretty good all around.
Pours dark brown with a tan head. The aroma is bright for the style with toast, brown sugar, mild spice, vanilla, maple and is nicely sweet. It has a medium / full body with some crispness and mild carbonation. The flavor has anise, roasty malt, variety of spices and lots of dryness. Pretty tasty.
12 oz bottle from arminjewell. Nose is chocolate, roast coffee, and molasses. Black with a medium cinnamon tan head. Flavor is molasses, black pepper, and chocolate with a hint of vanilla. Finishes with a nice mild black pepper note,nice but not overly hot.
12oz bottle. Pours black with a small tan head. Aroma is of wood, molasses, spice, malt, and dark fruit. Taste is of toasty malt, chocolate, wood, and molasses. There is also a lot of raisin and dates. Strong peppery underlying taste. Lingering taste of wood and spice. Mouthfeel is medium and sticky. Nice boozy, warming feel. Goes down very easy. I liked it a lot.
Roasted. Dark black. Chocolate. Kinda hot but still good. Good but not great. Sweet but Thx Vyvvy.
Bottle from del Mesa Foods & Liquors, San Diego. Opaque black beer with a decent beige head. Roasted chocolate and pepper aroma, licorice, coffee notes, creamy, herbal notes. Roasted chocolate flavor, spicy, peppers, salty, hay, herbal, some warming alcohol. Full bodied with a roasted peppery finish. Good one.
Aroma is strange, roasted malt, ginger, brown sugar, chocolate, coffee. Appearance is dark brown, light brown head. Taste is roasted malt and ginger, brown sugar, coffee. Mouthfeel is medium body, medium carbonation. Overall, not the best but drinkable.
Poured from a bottle. Pours very dark with a thin and tan head. Very roasty aroma with molasses and pepper. Overall very good.
Bottle thanks to Beerman6686. Pours a jet black color with a small white head. A crazy nose of root beer, roast, some licorice. The flavor is vanilla, chocolate, some light dark fruit, clear spicy pepper in the finish. A round sweet licorice base. Pretty awesome. A bit like cinnamon and vanilla.
Bottle thanks to beerman6686. Pours a clearish dark brown with a tan head. Aromas of chocolate and a spice cabinet with a light vegetal pepper background and black licorice. The taste is sweet up front with a dull but lingering pepper heat. Really surprised by this one. I thought it would be a mess but definitely well done.
[ Bottle ][ 1oz ][ @tasting ][ $0 ][ Shot glass ][ 08.15.15 ]
sepia, cream ring cap. Heavy roast nose, considerable bitterness. More flavorful, tons of classic bells bitterness, licorice and root, considerable hop balance in the finish. More heat and sweetness to balance, malt somewhat hidden under the roast.
12 oz. bottle from Market Wines. Pours a deep opaque brown with a small tan head that settles into a ring with a few ropes of lace in the glass. Drinks and smells like a sum of its parts - anise, cardamom, sage, cocoa, root beer, fudge, brown sugar, and menthol tobacco. Medium-bodied, with moderate carbonation and a smooth, sweet, spicy mouthfeel. Interesting enough in a small dose - I enjoyed about 6 ounces - but I don’t think I’d want any more than that.
12 oz. bottle, sent from Beerman6686 (thanks a lot, Daniel), pours black with a small tan head. Nose is a strange mix – I can’t pick out everything that has been added, but I get the maple syrup, figs and black pepper. Flavour is very strange, bringing out figs and maple syrup upfront, followed by black pepper and licorice. I don’t get any chocolate or spice. Medium-to-high sweetness level that fortunately doesn’t cloy. Surprisingly it all flows together and is coherent. Not the most enjoyable, but it is good for what it is.
Bottle. Pours a very dark brown with small beige head that lasts. The aroma is roast, anise, toffee. Medium mouth, roasted malt, chocolate, spice, light finish, good.
12oz bottle. Thick dark pour like you would expect from an imperial stout. Lots of adjuncts on the bottle. Can’t say I get all of them. The black licorice is the most dominant. Dark roast with a touch of dark fruit sweetness. Black pepper with a touch of spicy pepper at the very end. I get some rye spices like its a rye stout, but that may just be from some of the added spices. Considering everything in there it works ok.
Aromas of dark chocolate, coffee, star anise. Almost black with a somewhat lasting tan head. Flavors of dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, a little minty. Medium-full bodied, smooth, spicy.
Aromas of toffee, raisins, pepper, roasty black coffee and some cocoa. Light brown head and almost black body. Flavors of maple, cinnamon, cocoa, black pepper and some dry coffee and caramel. Smooth but spicy finish.
12 ounce bottle, Batch #14543, packaged on 07/10/15. Served in a DFH snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with about a half inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like roasted malt, anise, peppery spice, cayenne pepper and an earthy herbalness. Taste is similar to the aroma, it tastes like anise, cayenne pepper, dark fruit, peppery spice, molasses, roasted malt, woody earthiness and some chocolate. It’s a mix of sweet, spicy and earthy flavors. It’s not hot at all, but the cayenne heat is noticeable and stronger than I expected it to be. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it’s creamy with a moderate amount of carbonation. I thought this was good, it’s worth picking up if you find a bottle somewhere.
Black, just blaack. Small tan lacing brown foam. Strong coffee aroma, bittersweet coffee taste, chocolate notes, some roast. Great nightcap. (Chicago 201510)
Bottle courtesy of Max at his and Jess’s housewarming. Pours a deep blackish brown body with no head. Aroma is rich roast, light sharpie, some soy and dark fruit. Mouthfeel is medium to full-bodied with notes of roasted malt, burnt chocolate, soy sauce, pepper and alcohol.
Bottle thanks to phaleslu. Nose is super cocoa and chocolate. Taste is similar but with a very faint heat. No vegetal notes. Really pleasant but short of a mystical creation as the commercial deScription says
Pours a very dark purple to black with a thin ring of tan. Its slightly oily and clings to the glass. There is a little carbonation with tiny bubbles rising up the sides. The aroma is pleasant of dark fruit with some spices but not very strong. The taste is woody, earthy, with some pepper and spices. It is very dry! Even with all the peppers it isn’t harsh yet it isn’t very smooth either. The flavors of fruit are rather subtle and don’t pop or last long. The taste got a little better as it warmed up but still not nearly as good as some of their other stouts. This was a very interesting endeavor but not as enjoyable as I had hoped for. The dryness was probably the most off setting feature for me.
Bottle from Whole Foods PM. Pours thick, deep black with tan head. Nose is dark malt, cacao, anise, black pepper. Tastes rich, smooth, very complex, with notes of dark malt, cacao, vanilla, anise, and black pepper but with a higher Scoville level. Finishes rich and smooth.
Masterfully tasty, very complex. Dark, thick, balanced. something to be sought out. Fresh from Premier Gourmet.