Michigan Football: The Beer Drinking Man’s Guide to the Indiana Game

Michigan football heads to Bloomington this week in what should probably be the last chance for a relatively easy victory this season.

Next week the Wolverines travel to take on Penn State and then come home for the matchup against Ohio State. Getting in and out tomorrow without injuries or any scares would be a boon.

That said, Indiana is a weird opponent that has a terrible defense and a unique (in the Big Ten) spread, up-tempo offense.

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The Hoosiers played Ohio State and Iowa to within a score, and hung tough with Michigan State until the middle of the fourth quarter. This game probably

shouldn’t

be too close, but there are a couple ways in which the Hoosiers could pose a threat, though I don’t think they will.

Last week’s game against Rutgers seemed like the official start of the football season’s winter. The temperature in Michigan Stadium was in the low 40s, and winds swirled around 25mph for the majority of the contest, making for a long viewing experience of a blowout with a handful of maddening calls.

That said, the team is 7-2, ranked 15th, and has an outside shot at winning the East. All things considered, the cold doesn’t seem like that big of a problem, but if it’s going to be cold and breezy outside, we may as well make the most of it with Bell’s Brewery’s Neptune–The Mystic.

This is a deep, rich stout that clocks in at 9% ABV. I hadn’t had the opportunity to check out any of the installations of Bell’s Planet Series, which was inspired by “Gustav Holst’s seven-movement orchestral suite, ‘The Planets.’ Released in the order of Holst’s piece, Mars to Neptune,” according to their site, but I’m certainly glad I got a hold of this one last weekend. Neptune is out right now, and it’s pretty much an ideal midwestern stout.

Thick, luscious, spicy, and sweet all in one, Neptune makes for a great slow sip on a late autumn evening. It’s brewed with star anise, dried cayenne, raisins, dates, black pepper, hickory bark, dandelion root, nutmeg, grains of paradise, fenugreek seeds and dates.

If it sounds to you like those ingredients would make for a complicated, challenging beer that isn’t off-putting at any point, then you would be right.

The beer starts off more brightly than you’d anticipate, as some of the sweetness and a lot of the spice hits you up front. Not a lot of stouts start out as smooth and bright, especially at that ABV, but Neptune really does a good job of front-loading aspects of the spices that will ensure that you’re not gonna be exhausted or trying to scrape your tongue by the end of your sip.

The cayenne and black pepper exist on their own island throughout, reminding you that you aren’t drinking a normal, syrupy stout and keep things unusually (for a heavy stout) crisp in tandem with the fruit notes. There is an earthy flavor that impressively lingers throughout, preventing the beer from giving too much over to the sweet collection of ingredients and keeps things autumnal.

After the initial burst of spice everything warms up with some fruit notes that gradually transition into the great chocolatey/smoky warmth that we all associate with good stouts.

The finish is surprisingly clean for such a full bodied beer, so it’s not a chore to toss back a couple of these.

Next: What to watch for against Indiana

Happy home stretch, everyone!