Bell's Jupiter Review

Name: Bell's Jupiter 
Style: Brown Ale
ABV: 8%

Bell's Brewery has been releasing a new beer in its Planet Series, which pays homage to Gustav Holst's classical musical suite "The Planets," which each beer paying homage to a section of the suite with seven in all.

Today's beer is based on the fourth section of The Planets called "Jupiter," which should invokes feelings of happiness, joy and other great feelings. Appropriate timing too because Spring has finally arrived! Though the beer itself is classified as a brown ale, Bell's has gone on the record to say that this is actually an Imperial Brown Ale. They also recommend pouring this into a Nonic glass, which is what we are doing today.

Appearance - A dark brown color that has a crimson tinge along the edges of the glass. The head is on the thinner side and takes on a khaki colored appearance, though the retention is quite good.

Aroma - Strong chocolate malts dominate the front of the nose which is paired with some moderate toffee sweetness. There's some mild floral hoppiness in the back too along with some mild roasted barley notes. You really can't tell this beer is 8% ABV.

Taste - Chocolate malts are once again the centerpiece for this beer but the toffee sweetness and floral hoppiness are more or less equals with the toffee notes getting a slight edge. The aftertaste is mainly chocolate malts and a light booziness. There's a light roastiness that encompasses the flavor, but it feels mild at best.

When it's said and done, Jupiter is a solid beer. At the same time, I think it is the weakest (a term I use very loosely) beer in the series so far as I don't think it doesn't do anything that jumps out at me. Sure it's worth checking out but if you don't get around to having this, then you aren't exactly missing too much.

Bell's Jupiter - 8/10