Deschutes The Abyss

Brewed by Deschutes Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Bend, Oregon USA

22 oz bottle. Made in 2008. Purchased at Roxies and shared with Gabe. Pours a thinnish mocha head, good late duration, some lacing over a dark black, utterly opaque body.....nose is very complex with coffee, chocolate, anise, molasses and a whole slew of fragrences I cannot describe adequately......taste is again similar to the nose, of great complexity starting off with sweet coffee, then molasses, then finishing hops...mouth feel is creamy, chewy, somewhat sticky....,superb balance of powerful forces. This is very hard to do this well!!!!

22 oz bottle - 2008 vintage - Pours a totally opaque black color with smallish light brown head. Aroma is mildly roasty, notes of vanilla and oak, light ash and toasted coffee. Flavor is robustly roasty, lots of coffee and vanilla, bit of ash and oak, molasses, anise, fair amount of herbal hops. Finish is firmly bitter, a very faint metallic finish. Pretty good, but not quite up to the hype Ive heard.

22oz bottle 07 Vintage(courtesy of doubleo)-Pours a pitch black body with a nice big tan head. Aroma of vanilla, oak, chocolate, licorice, and roasted malt. Taste begins with chocolate, oak , and coffee. They linger to the end with the same and adding roasted malt, vanilla, and finishing with a bitterness. This full bodied brew lives up to its expectations and hides the ABV very well. Great Brew.

Bomber, from Liquor Collection. Pours pitch black with a gray brown head. Rich roasts in the nose, with espresso, wood and some baker’s chocolate. Palate is smooth, primarily, with soft supporting carbonation. Flavor starts with wood, roasts and black licorice, then transitions into black coffee, smoke, and chocolate. Finishes with an extremely well balanced bitterness, complemented by creamy vanilla, oak and coffee. This is every bit as good as advertised, and such a pleasure to drink.

Its pretty rare to see a 100 percentile beer around here, and I was pretty happy to get my paws on this one. On tap and fresh (that might be the problem) from the brewery. A wall of burnt malt hits you on the first sip in both smell and taste. Then the ABV shows its ugly head. The aroma has an amazing burnt toast smell to it. The head is dark tan. You can get some tobacco and nut flavors out of it. But then there is the flaw, the alcohol presence. Its there, big time, the whole time. The alcohol taste, presence, and dominance is similar to cheap high ABV malt liquor like 211, and anytime you compare a beer to 211, its not a good thing. The dark tar molasses syrup has a huge amount of potential, and maybe if you hid it away for a few years you might have something, but fresh, I did not enjoy drinking it.

2008 bottle; deep dark pour with dark tan foamy head. Aroma has rich roasted malt with molasses and coffee. Tastes of more roasted malt, vanilla and anise with chocolate and coffee plus a fairly well balanced bitter finish. I wish I could be less trite in describing this beer because it is excellent. 2008 seems to be less harsh than the 2007 at the time. Mouthfeel is spectacular; creamy and viscous. I wonder how this one will age.

Rating 600. 22oz bottle 2008 vintage tasted with a 2007 bottle for comparison (thanks tpd975 for the 2007 share). Pours a dark murky black color impermeable to light. Thick and foamy tan yellow head that heavily laces the glass. Aroma is bourbon, oak, wood, roasted coffee and malt, some hints of burnt molasses. Flavor is impressive and complex with notes of roasted malt, syrupy toffee, molasses, ripe dark fruit. Very creamy mouthfeel with a warming malty finish. Not all beers live up to the hype, but this one does. The 2007 bottle tasted almost identical to the 2008 but had smoothed out just a little more. Both were excellent.

I have had this on tap and in the bottle. Out of the bottle was great, but on tap was magnificent! A: Quite an awesome looking beer. No light can even begin to come close to showing through. Beautiful caramel colored head. S: Smells of roasted coffee, lots of coffee, oak, licorice, and even more molassess than coffee! T: Sweet molassess and coffee explosion! this is too complex for me to even begin to point out all the flavors! slight oaky aftertaste. M: Perfect. Silky. Smooth. Perfect. D: I could drink this all day. The alcohol is very well hidden in this one, but it sure hits you after a couple glasses. Best RIS I have ever had. Deschutes never fails in my book.