Deschutes The Abyss

First of all, a huge shout out to jake65 for sending me this beauty back in the summer of 2008. 22 oz bottle, 2007 edition. Pours a impenetrable black with the darkest brown head I’ve ever seen. Recedes rapidly though. Huge molasses aroma with roasted malt and coffee nots. Substantial palate with some alcohol burn. A real sipper for sure.Flavor is a well balanced mix of molasses, dark bakers chocolate, roasted malts, espresso coffee , licorice, all with a subtle hint of the oak barrels it was aged in. Simply outstanding.

08/10/2009 with Steve and Hugo. A black hole of dark chocolate, liquorice and rich malt that is so good, so balanced, so integrated, and so unfairly drinkable that it almost sucked away my desire to brew or to even drink another beer in my lifetime. It’s also turned my writing into clumsy junk. Well done Deschutes, this is a classic. A velvet fog. A nobel laureate of beer. Note: I couldn’t find any non-terrestial intelligences (or cheese) at the bottom of this abyss.

Bottle. 2007 version. Black with a fine head. Aroma of smokey bourbon, licorice, and molasses. Flavors include chocolate, coffee, molasses, subtle vanilla, and bourbon. Quite smoky. Burnt, sharply bitter finish. Wonderfully done.

Sampled at GABF 2009. Black pour with a thin tan head. Dark chocolate and espresso aroma, dark chocolate and espresso flavor. Near the top of its class. Phenomenal.

Pours very dark and black with no light escaping out of this beer!! A lovely dark brown head forms and remains for a short time leaving behind some terrific lacing. It’s very viscous and thick, almost gloopy at times during the pour. Smells of rich milk chocolate, sweet caramel, toffee, molasses, a hint of black licorice and anise coming through as well. Underneath all of that is definitely a layer of vanilla. The main thing is that I swear I’m smelling a giant rich chocolate milkshake!! There is a hint of alcohol coming through as well. I could sit and smell this beer all night long!! The aromas are so clean and pronounced...incredible aromas coming through!! The flavor is very full and complex delivering notes of a nice charred woody complexity but the sweet molasses, the dark licorice, anise, and bitter coffee are extremely delicious! There are also soft and supple flavors of browned sugar, toffee, and of course, that lucious rich sweet chocolate coming through beautifully! The body is full and heavy as a stout should be. The beer finishes with the sweet chocolate malts delivering to the very end. This is one big and exciting beer! "Excellent" in every sense of the word!!

Thank you so much BVC (Brandon) for hooking me up with this 2007 22 oz. bottle of Abyss! Finally, get to try this! Now this is a good looking beer. Has a huge dark chocolate head. Viscous black pour; what else could you look for in an imperial stout. Pungent aroma I must say. Wood/chocolate/subtle coffee aromas are just oozing out of this one. Chocolate is the most noticeable aroma. A nice roast aroma as well. Very nuanced in terms of aroma. Rich beer. Flavor is nice. Lovely wood roast flavor. Some sublte chocolate and coffee to go along with this. The wood and chocolate develop and get to be more rich and deep as you let the flavors develop in your mouth. Alcohol is well hidden. This is a damn good stout. Bourbon doesn’t come through as much as I would like it to, but this beer is not one to mess around with.

Thanks tytoanderso for this one! Pours a black color with a big frothy foamy beighe head. Looks inviting! Aroma is filled with roasted malt and lliquorice along with some dark chocolate. Taste is pretty maltdominated with some nice notes of vanilla,liquorice,coffee and chocolate. Some oaky/smokey notes can be found somewhere in the mix. Sweet but not overly so. Pretty good.