Traverse City Barrel-Aged Neptune
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

 

 

Tasted in a snifter from draught at Firkin on may 26, 2017.

Quietly sitting in Traverse City whisky barrels for two years and this somber planet series beer finally awakens. What was spicy, sweet and earthy early on has mellowed into a refined and masculine taste.

Traverse City Barrel Aged Neptune pours with a luscious inky black color and with a stewing, simmering creme that floats gently above. Bold aromas of burnt sugars, coffee, cocoa and earthen spice rolls onto the senses like coffee liquor. But then the taste erupts with a plethora of savory roasted malts. Molasses, toffee, caramel and dark chocolate cake flavors overwhelm the early palate.

And as the immensity of malt sweetness lifts off of the middle palate, the softened spices rise to balance the grain, molasses and char. What has developed into a raisin, fudge, peppercorn, and aniseed spice, a hint of licorice and gingerbread round into a smoldering espresso, roasted, blackstrap molasses, dessert-like taste.

Creamy, silky and batter-like on the palate, its robust mouthfeel is like a roasty, toasty marshmallow but with the simmering warmth of oaken whisky, equipped with a long followup of peat and prune before a savory, sherry-like finish. Neptune is th epitome of class among the planet series and this barrel aged treatment only advances its prominence.