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Eclipse Hops SMaSH Review and Tasting

When we saw the 2022 harvest was in for Australian hops, we jumped at the chance to grab a variety we didn’t know that well. We like brewing hops as fresh as we can get them. The Eclipse hops we got from Yakima Valley Hops helped us make a great SMaSH beer. Check out this video as we learn more about them.

Eclipse Hops SMaSH Beer Notes

You may have seen these Brew Dudes brew SMaSH beers before. If not, keep in mind that these SMaSH beers a brewed in small batches. We are only brewing to evaluate hops aromas and flavors. With a 1 US gallon batch, we can keep the costs down and past the knowledge on to you.

With that batch size, we use 2 pounds of malt (Rahr 2-row pale), 2 gallons of water (tap), 1 ounce of hops (in this case, Eclipse), and 3 grams of yeast (US-05. We mash for an hour, boil for an hour, and ferment for 10 days.

Hop additions change a bit from brew to brew. For this SMaSH beer, we added 7 grams of hops at 15 minutes to go in the boil, 14 grams at flame out, and 7 grams at day 3 of fermentation.

If we were to give you one word to describe this SMaSH beer, it would be citrus. It was present on the nose, just the essence of some citrus peel. The flavor was more defined and stronger.

We thought this beer had a tangerine or lime quality in the flavor. It definitely was not grapefruit as we are well aware with Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. Mike described the citrus flavor further by saying it wasn’t “sweet” like an orange but more like the acidic, smaller citrus fruits.

All in all, this hop made for a tasty beer experience. This variety could certainly stand on its own and could blend well with other hops. Try them with Amarillo or complement hops that have a melon quality like Calypso hops.

Get your hands on Eclipse hops ASAP! BREW ON!

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2 Comments

  1. Daniel B

    I made a single hop with Eclipse in January 2022, my notes were the following:
    “Sweet tangerine, lemon rind and a hint of pine”. It’s a great hop for a west coast imho.

  2. Thanks Daniel – I think this hop is a good one.

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