Crabtree Eclipse Black IPA

Brewed by Crabtree Brewing Company
Style: Black IPA
Greeley, Colorado USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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16 oz tall boy. Poured a dark brown, almost black, with a khaki head. Smell is earthy, citrus, grapefruit, spice, cocoa, and light roast. Taste is earthy, light chocolate, coffee, spice, and citrus with a moderately bitter finish. There is a lingering coffee/chocolate taste in my mouth that I am thoroughly enjoying and the belgian yeast really makes this beer interesting. Great lacing, creamy mouthfeel, and medium carbonation. A lot going on in this beer and I really enjoyed it. Pretty good.

16oz can. Pours a dark brown with a big pillowy light brown head that retains well and laces the glass some.

The aroma is roasted malts and piney floral hops with a bit of leather and spice.

The flavor is roasted malts and sweet chocolate with a good amount of piney bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with smooth carbonation.

Overall, one of the best Black IPAs I’ve had. It has a good balance of sweeter malts, roast and hops.

Very dark brown (nearly black) with a frothy, tan head. At first the aroma is all pine, but then that melts away and you get chocolate and mild orange. It has a light body with slightly oily texture and lively carbonation. The taste is bitter from beginning to end, but the roasted chocolate is still there with mild coffee behind the bitter finish.

Summer 2011 - In a concerted effort to "go local" with a lot of other consumable and munch able things on my menu, I plucked a bottle of the Crabtree Black IPA off the shelf. It came the relatively short distance from Greeley (hopefully outpacing the stench of rendered cattle) to my beer shelf. It didn’t last long there either, because Black IPAs are my new favorite exotic fruit, amalgamating many of the flavors I like from separate beers into one glorious style. Appropriate to the style, the body is a deep black, but billows up and out with a thin tan head. The aroma smells liken a combination of a wood shop and a rustic kitchen, combining the domestic aromas of dried wood, pepper, raisin and a handful of hops. The flavor kicks with an intense alcohol profile, calming down in the aftertaste to reveal a rich, dark maltiness. Fig and cinnamon and molasses sweeten the flavor where the alcohol burns it, a thin palate stretches the flavor, and then the hops are finally revealed in the end; this seems like a strange place for the hops to appear in a Black IPA. Overall, it’s a bit too dark and sticky sweet for me, but it’s a good example of what a Black IPA can taste like, one or two standard deviations away from a more mild version.

Pours a dark brown with a coffee head. Aroma of bananas, bread and grass. Flavor of bananas (interesting), coffee and roasty malts. No hops to speak of for an IPA. Not the flavor I expect from a black IPA, but not bad. Interesting beer that is worth a try.

Pours a black color. Smell is roasted malts, some sweetness. Taste is well balanced roasted malts and hops, a bit of coffee as well. Overall a quality beer.

Pours like an impy stout - oily jet black with big lasting brown head. Citrusy nose like an IPA but with some Saison like funk. Taste mostly follows. Big hops for sure, but complex. Just hints of roast. Some tart and barnyard too. Crisp and dry with med-light mouthfeel. Best black IPA I've had so far.

Deep mahogany brown with thick tan head. Fresh floral hop aroma. Rich and malty with forward hop character.

Pours dark black with large amount of brownish head. Fruity, citrus, chocolate, hoppy nose. Taste is sweet chocolate, pine bitterness, and fruity esters from the belgian yeast. A little too confusing with too much going on. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Pours dark brown with a latte colored froth head. The aroma is bittersweet chocolate, caramel, roasted malt; as it opens it becomes more citrusy sweet. Taste is chocolate roasted malts w/ candy sugar sweetness with a bitter floral/citrus hop. The flavor of the citrusy dry hop lingers with the roasted chocolate malt on the palate. Lots of malt flavor for a black IPA; well balanced.