“Eclipse: a world-wide phenomenon straight from our brewery in small town Truckee. It starts with our award winning Totality Imperial Stout, and then spends 6 months in a variety of barrels specially curated  by our talented brew team, often finished with some specialty flare that will knock your socks off. Laws® Four Grain Straight Bourbon Whiskey Barrels: Eclipse aged in Laws® Four Grain Straight Bourbon Whiskey Barrels.”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: As black as the ace of spades with a short brown cap over the top. Steady reduction and fairly minimal lace on the glass as it subsides.

Aroma: Smells magnificent. This is more like the 50/50 we know. As usual, the base Stout provides that crucial structure (dark chocolate, coffee, some molasses and leather) but it’s all about the quality of the Bourbon/barrels. Once again it’s a distillery we’ve never heard of but its Bourbon speaks for itself – typical vanilla sweetness, peppery spice, tobacco and a touch of toffee.

Flavour: This is more like it. Smooth yet rich base Stout characters kicking it off. The booze is pretty hot but that can be forgiven considering its immaturity. It doesn’t take long for the world class Bourbon to take shape…coming to the party with a clear peppery spice, creamy vanilla, toffee, earthy cigar box and a hint of oak tannin to punctuate.

Mouthfeel: Dense and silky but refined and surprisingly smooth for its size (12.3% ABV). Full bodied, moderate carbonation.

Overall: It appears that we’ve unintentionally started with the weakest expression of the lot and they’ve progressively gotten better. This one has to be the pick of the bunch so far. Delish!