Oort Imperial Stout
Ecliptic Brewing

 

 

16 Oz can dated 01/11/22
Poured into a pint glass

Pours a solid black body with tan head (aggressive pour)
Great retention, Multiple rings of lacing

Smell is a grainy malt forward. Roasted coffee with some faint pine notes

Taste is roasted burnt coffee with a nice hop bitterness. Slightly boozy, dry finish

Full, creamy feel

A nice balance. (Nice bitterness!!) It you like your stouts a little more bitter than sweet you will appreciate this beer.
Bravo!

2022 edition. Can from TJs.

Jet black with a dense dark brown head with excellent retention and lacing. Thr nose is a throwback. Big pine bitterness, roasted malt, black patent acrid notes countered by moderate anise and mild licorice notes. Bitter dark chocolate, unsweetened cocoa, classic and uncompromising. The palate opens with a load of pine and grain bitterness with even some ash present. Grainy, roasty with dark chocolate, bitter, roasty. Minimal coffee. Burnt sugar. Long, bitter finish, with layers of pine and ash. Lovely balance, delicious beer.

2020 version is 9% alc.
Purchased from capital Market in Salem OR, 500 ml bottle.
$9
Pure black body with a large rocky/frothy /creamy all at once beige coloured head.
Aroma semi dark chocolate, mocha coffee , figs, lactose and slight ash.
Taste similar but with some toffee and molasses ..finishes with a bit of hazelnut. Great
Lovely smooth yet brisk mouth feel..not heavy at all and the alcohol is barely noticed.
My kind of Impy here..no weird stuff , just good stout

Nearly pitch black in color, clarity is difficult to make out. Long lasting creamy light tan head that clings to the glass

Rich, malt forward aroma with notes of licorice, bakers chocolate, molasses and fresh baked bread. Medium low hop aroma with hints of pine, resin and subtle earthyness.

Intense flavors of roasted malt upfront with hints of licorice, coffee, baker's chocolate and molasses. Hop bitter comes through well with piney, earthy flavors. Beer is well attenuated with a dry finish

Mouth feel is creamy and medium full but seems to be slightly flimsy for such a big beer. Alcohol warmth is pretty noticeable but not unpleasant. Medium carbonation

A very good beer and one I would definitely buy again, I just wish more breweries would brew more stouts without all the adjuncts and barrel aging. This is a fine example of an imperial stout.

 

Look: Pours near black, with about 2 fingers worth of head. Moderate lacing on the glass.
Smell: Roasted malts, come chocolate, and dark fruits such as dates and figs. Pleasant smelling.
Taste: Really let down by the taste. Chocolate presence is minimal. Malt flavor is noted, but not desirable.
Feel: Light and watery in body, carbonation seems high.
Overall: I was excited to try this brew, mostly due to the name. It didn't live up to expectations. I am grateful to have tried. Cheers!

$ 10.67 (Including shipping)/bomber ($ 0.485/oz) from Tavour, Seattle, WA.
Unable to find date on bottle other than “2018 edition”. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 54 degrees in a hand-washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 4.
Body – Dark brown, opaque. Holding to light allows some penetration around the edge.
Head – Large (Maximum 5,8 cm, aggressive center pour), tan, medium density with rocks, above average retention, dwindling to five mm ring and a complete, thick layer with rocks. Head retraction leaves a narrow band of curtaining behind.
Lacing – Excellent! Wide bands of tiny to small bubbles connected by short columns.
First pour – Dark brown, clear.
Aroma – 3.5 – Weak chocolate and caramel.
Flavor – 3 - Begins with a slight hop bitterness. Neither the chocolate nor the caramel from the nose translate to the taste. The bitterness intensifies as the roasted malt bitterness joins the fray.
Palate – 3 - Almost medium, borderline watery, soft carbonation.
Impression and summation – 3 – I don’t know if I just got a bad bottle or if this is just a bad Impy stout. It is too thin, too watery, too bitter, and too flavorless. Some diacetyl would have been an improvement – at least it would have given some flavor. Sorry Ecliptic, the name alone made me want to try this but the flavor is as nebulous as the Oort Cloud.

This beer pours a pitch black into the glass and has a head that accumulates just as rapidly as it dissipates. It smells like a bitter chocolate and tastes similarly, though the hoppiness and malty caramel flavors are just as prevalent. The mouthfeel is milky and as thick as I like my stouts to be, though there is a tiny little more stickiness than I usually hope for.

 

 

Have here a teku goblet of 2016 Oort. As you know, Ecliptic is a small batch brewer with limited (though extant) distribution. Their BA Barley Wine was one of the best beers, if not THE best, I've ever had. So I had high expectations for their IS. There is no disappointment here! A very smooth, complex, dark, and malty IS that is just the way I like it. IS should be divided into two styles: roasted malt, burnt caramel, coffee flavor style (like Old Rasputin); and complex, sweet malty style (like Narwhal). This is of the later. This actual rivals Narwhal (one of my favorites), but I still think I give Narwhal the edge. This has just a hair more carmalized flavors than Narwhal, which seems to have the more perfect balance. From ratings, I gather that more people prefer the roasted malt type of IS, but I think the over-bearing dark, burnt caramel flavors dominate too much, and I prefer the more complex broad-spectrum, sweet malt types like this one. They are both good, though.

Surprisingly, this was amazing right out of the fridge, with complex flavors immediately evident, despite the too low temp. Improves slightly on warming to 50F, but not as much as a burnt caramel type of IS would.

There is a BA version of this beer. Hard to find, but if I ever come across a bottle, it is mine!

 

 

 

Good but was oxidized.

2016 Edition

Appearance - Pours near black with cola brown edging. Cocoa powder colored head that peaks at a finger's width. Fair retention before dying out to a thin, broken layer of suds. Not much for lacing aside from a few spots.

Smell - Mildy chocolate aroma with a hint of roasted malt. Smokey undertone. A bit of astringency.

Taste - Follows the nose. Mild chocolate. A touch of roast. Some underlying caramel. Lots of smokiness. It's not overwhelming, but it's present from initial sip through to the aftertaste. Finishes with some mild milk chocolate sweetness and that everpresent smokey character.

Mouthfeel - Medium-to-full in body with moderate carbonation. Slick texture. A bit thin for an impy stout, but not terribly so. Goes down easy.

Overall - Pretty good imperial stout, but lacks ideal depth. The smokiness is certainly its most interesting character. Reminiscent of Grand Teton's Black Calderon, though I much prefer the latter due to it's more complete profile.

Look: It pours black with a dark brown head. There is some lace with it.

Smell: It has aromas of chocolate, coffee, dark fruit featuring plums and a hint of vanilla.

Taste: There are flavors of chocolate, dark fruit- mainly plums, low coffee, hints of vanilla, roast, and low floral.

Feel: It has a full body with high bitterness and high carbonation.

Overall the chocolate dominates the flavors with a complex combination of other malt flavors and hops.

Had this on tap at Front Range BBQ.

Inky black body. Full-blown dark grain aroma and ripe dark, pitted fruits. Tobacco and chocolate flavors; a little boozy, a little bitter. Thick and chewy body.

A heavy hitter that shouldn't disappoint lovers of imperial styled stouts.