Bell's - The Planets Series

you do know a case is only $43 from the general store right?

 

Yea but that is a 2 hour drive. I'm good with the 2 bottles I got. Haven't tried it yet but probably wouldn't want any more than a 6 pack anyway.

 

Man, "only $43/case" was not in the vocabulary years ago. I read this and thought $11/6 is pretty good price. Amazing to me the change in mentally accepting the price for quality once you really appreciate something. A friend and I spilt a case of barrel aged blackout stout two years ago, and it was "only $180 a case."

 

Sorry folks, nothing turns me off more than manufactured demand perpetrated by the manufacturer. I don't care what medium it is...and hey I'm not saying that if I saw these things on the shelf that I wouldn't consider the purchase but come on, what kinda groupie hyperbolic nonsense is this?? $43 a case...$180 a case??

 

Is BA Blackout still that expensive? I mean cases of Black Note (a comparable beer) were "only" 140 this year.

 

Yeah no worries. We have a pretty good support system setup in GR for guys to mule cases for others here. I wouldn't think it would be too hard for you to find a friend or someone who would do the same for you to get product to the east side of the state. That's all I was was saying, hope you enjoy it.

 

BA blackout is waaay overpriced.

 

kind of wished bells would have flip flopped the saturn and mercury release dates but i guess they have a schedule to go by with the aging in the barrel...cant wait for all of these i liked mars a lot

 

Venus is an interesting beer. I really think the honey, vanilla and cardamom works well with the base beer, the apricot is really throwing me off. The first bottle I had the apricot really stood out, was not well integrated at all. Had a second bottle last night, this time the beer as a whole was more cohesive however the tartness of the apricot still did not match the overall smoothness of the rest of the beer.

I would really like to see this beer done with quince juice rather than the apricot. Bell's has done some recent experiments with quince, the flavor profile really matches and would enhance the honey, vanilla and cardamom of Venus.

 

Ahhh. Got ya. Thanks for the info. Should be interesting to try but will probably be fruitier than I like.

Saturn and Neptune are the 2 I am most excited for in the series.

 

Cool, let me know if you need help getting those two in bigger quantities. I can always use another good beer bud on the East side, Cheers!

 

2 years ago it was $30/4, at the Great Lakes Gift Shop. There was no "case discount."

Then, we had to get it to GA... Someone bought it for us, and sent it down. I didn't include the shipping in our "cost."

I have no idea what it would cost this winter.

 

Had one yesterday in Ann Arbir and was VERY impressed. Loved the apricot in it.

 

Venus is out in metro Detroit I take it? I haven't gone to the store yet. Venus is one in the series I was most looking forward to because of its description.

Anybody in SE Michigan know of a store that has it for sure?

 

My wife and I did a side-by-side with these two about a month ago and we both preferred Mars. To each their own, though.

 

Picked up a Venus in northern MI on Saturday. Haven't seen it in GR yet... Go figure...

 

Can't believe the low ratings on Venus. Love the tart/acidic quality mixed with the apricot/cardimom flavors (don't really get vanilla). Most similar comp would be Short's Anniversary ale.

 

I drink IPAs almost exclusively, and 10 week old IPAs are a problem, at least with Mars. It deserved a drain pour, it was overly malty and was a mess of a beer. There are some IPAs that have some stamina such as HT.

 

That's exactly what it reminds me of, sadly I didn't care for that one much either.

 

Yeah I might bump up my rating. I kinda like it, but it's not something I'd go crazy for if it were a yearly release.