Deschutes The Abyss

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

(Bottle, Stockholm Beer Festival, 20 Sep 2008) Pitch black colour with creamy, brown head. Malty, roasted nose with notes of tar, espresso and asphalt. Rather closed. Malty, roasted taste with espresso, cocoa, dark bitter chocolate, tar and loads of liquorice. Full body with chewy mouthfeel. Fairly sweet. Lots of bitterness with cocoa and coffe, nicely balanced by the heavily roasted malt. Really powerful beer. Excellent!

Bottle from Degarth. A beautiful bottle, I must say... the black wax top is very smooth and even, and the label is lovely. Once poured, it exhibits really nice lacing, with patterns more akin to real lace than any beer lace I’ve seen.

Aroma is powerful bitter coffee, a lot more so than many ISs of late. Only the slighest hint of oak in the aroma, with no bourbon noticed -- probably for the better! Bourbon in a beer like this would dominate. Flavor is similar, but very rich and round, smooth, robust but not punchy. If I were to assign the texture of this beer a surface, I’d choose a high-grade glass ball. Smooth, but not velvetty, but not cheap like plastic either. Ya know what I mean? This beer is extremely well balanced and well made, and is a lot less in your face than many of the other imperial stouts in the top 50. Well done!

Bottle for rating #2000: Pitch black in color, moderate to large brownish head, quite foamy, lacing is fairly spotty tho.   Heavy roasted malts, heavy chocolate malt, graham cracker, and semi-sweet cocoa on the nose.   Picks up an Oatmeal like quality as it warms.   Quite sweet, body and mouthfeel are moderate to full.   Almost cloying in its sweetness, but just enough bitterness to counteract it.   Slight campfire or charred wood emerges as well.   Finishes with heaps of cocoa and a soft touch of hop bitterness.   Very subtle licorice is present.   Heavy roasted malts from start to finish.   I didn’t get any Oak in this one.   Solid example of an Imperial Stout.   At least one that is quite big but doesn’t kill you with its alcohol.   This one is 11% but rides quite nice.   A slight warming is all I get out of this one.   Oh, did I mention clean?   Yeah, comes across as being tailored pretty well.   I am glad I was able to get one with its such limited distribution here in Washington.

[1921-20081222] 1pt6floz bottle. Dark roasted molasses dipped in bread chunks aroma with coffee hints. Black body with a long-lasting creamy dark brown head. Dark roasted malt flavour with sweet molasses and coffee beans and slightly smoky wood. Full body is smooth with hidden alcohol. Surprisingly simple and very, very good, any girl might steal a glass of this...
(Vintage 2007; w/ GregClow, jerc)

2008 Bottle. Appearance: Pours a black body with a small, fizzy, short-lived dark tan head. Smell: Aroma of dark roasted malts with notes of licorice, molasses, and a shot of alcohol. A good measure of oak in there without overdoing it, which is always nice to see. Taste: Flavor loaded with roasted dark maltiness. Plenty of dark chocolate syrup, toasted marshmallows, and spicy anise. Relatively mild sweetness throughout. A taste of coffee that grows exponentially as it warms. Reasonable oaky presence. A strong, earthy bitterness helps balance the heavy malt. Tiny hints of bourbon. Chewy, earthy finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Seriously, this is a fairly well-made imperial stout. Absolutely stupendous? Nah, but better than most.

Courtesy of Styles

Bottle: The aroma has lots of roasted coffee, black licorice, molasses, light caramel, vanilla, and a hint of burnt wood. It pours virtually black with a small brown head. The flavor has lots of roasted coffee and black licorice. There’s also some moderate chocolate, molasses, and caramel. It finishes with some burnt notes, piney hops, and a hint of wood and vanilla. There bourbon presence in this is extremely minimal. Very nice.

Bomber via Crosling. The beer pours to a black body with a thick creamy/bubbly brown head. Nice lacing. The aroma is mocha chocolate coffee Jello pudding. Subtle oaken vanilla. The flavor is sweet and bitter chocolate, coffee, light oaken components. The palate is creamy, rich, bitter, robust, but not perfect. Not really as complex as I had hoped.

From bottle courtesy of Naka. Terrific nose. Cocoa, coffee, vanilla, oak. Some licorice, phenols, alcohol. Light almond. Mild bitter hops. Jet black liquid with tan lacing head. Heavy oily body with medium carbonation. Alcohol warming. Starts with tons of chocolate and coffee, licorice and oak. Vanilla, carbonic acidity. Sweetness is heavy but not cloying. Huge bitter finish that lasts. After is bitter and a little chalky.