Bell's Uranus Review

Name: Bell's Uranus
Style: Imperial Black IPA
ABV: 9.5%
IBUs: N/A

Well I honestly thought I'd never get to review this due to everything that's been going on and the fact I hadn't seen it on shelves until last weekend, but now my bottle cap collection can continue. Today I've got the second-to-last offering in the Bell's Brewery Planet Series which is Uranus: The Magician.

This time around, we've been given an Imperial Black IPA. It's a style I've never had before from Bell's, let alone a Black IPA from them. However they've added Citra, Galaxy & Polaris (The North Star) hops, because, you know, it's all about space. Though I will admit it's fairly clever to implement the said hops.

Appearance - Initially pitch black in color but it turns to a very dark brown color when held to a light. The head is reasonably foamy but not by any means voluminous. There is some pretty good sticky lacing here but there isn't any visible carbonation

Aroma - Chocolate malts upfront followed immediately by bitter & citrus hoppiness. There's also a bit of light roastiness thrown in as well. Aside from all of that, the nose feels just a little underwhelming even after warming up. On the plus side, I'm not getting any booziness.

Taste - Strong citrus and bitter hops upfront backed up by a solid chocolate malt backbone and light roasted barley. I'm also getting some grapefruitiness more towards the back of the palate along with some light marshmallow notes that seemingly encompass the flavor.

All and all, I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is my favorite of the series (That distinction still belongs to Saturn) but it's up there! That said, it's a great tasting black IPA in it's own right. If Bell's were to add this as a seasonal, I would certainly be buying this as a six pack. Like many beers I've had in the Planet Series, it's makes my heart sink just a bit knowing that we could potentially never see these beers made by Bell's again.

Bell's Uranus - 9/10