Bell's Saturn Review

Name: Bell's Saturn
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 11.5%

Bell's Brewery has just released the fifth beer in their Planets Series, which is based off of The Planets suite by Gustav Holst. Tonight I have the beer based on the fifth canto of the suite: Saturn.

The style is a barleywine that has been aged in bourbon barrels, and it's meant to be aged for a long time according to the brewery's website. it makes sense when you consider that the full name of this canto is Saturn: The Bringer of Old Age.

Appearance - Dark orange/brown color with just a hint of carbonation. The head is on the thinner side but has some good filmy retention and the lacing itself is rather plentiful

Aroma - Strong caramelized malts on the front of the nose followed by some potent vanilla sweetness and oakiness. I'm also getting some strong bitter and piney hoppiness here too. The more it warms up, the more that vanilla and oak start to shine through, so you can definitely tell this has been barrel-aged.

Taste - The vanilla and oakiness move to the front and center of the flavor along with the caramelized malts, all of which linger throughout. During the second half of the flavor is when you starting getting that bitter and citrus hoppiness. The aftertaste consists of some vanilla and oak notes paired with some bitter hoppiness

My favorite barrel-aged barleywine before having this was from Central Waters, but I think this is slightly better. I've been very impressed with the Planet Series so far, but this stands out right now as my absolute favorite of the series. Even if you don't decide to wait and age this, you're still in for an absolutely fantastic beer!

Bell's Saturn - 9.75/10