Deschutes The Abyss

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

Bottle shared by footbalm. Pours a deep dark brown with a similarly brownish head. The aroma is really great; deep moss covered earth, smoke, coffee, and some sweet molasses. The taste is top notch, really complex and yet so damn smooth. As with many great beers this changes a ton with warming; first, a bitter chocolate flavor with dark fruits, vanilla, brown sugar, and smoke. Later with warming the fruit and roasted malts come to fore, so damn good. A bourbon taste for sure, along with a really great creamy body. The ABV is strong at first, then nonexistent. Wow! All it was hyped to be.

Bomber courtesy of Ty5592. Was thinking of aging this but thought it better to go ahead and try one "fresh." Pours black with a big tan head initially. Nose is faint with chocolate, oak, and coffee noted. Flavor is very chocolately and sweet at first, molasses noted, but then finishes with a very bitter coffee/ipa-like twist. Nice, but a little too bitter for my current tatstes.

Pours a deep dark brown/black with a foamy 2 finger tan head. Nose is oak, charred malt, chocolate, coffee and alcohol. Palate is roasted coffee, cocoa, molasses, fruit and a bit of hop bitter bite at the end. I didn’t detect any licorice. Creamy mouth feel and nice lacing. You can tell it’s not quite there yet, but the pieces are in place. I bet this will really be a great beer in a year or so. Still very good as is.

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.

One of the most noticeable aspects of this one was the wonderful mouthfeel- like silk on the tongue. The color was darkest black. Alcohol was hidden at first, but raised it’s head late in the bottle. An almost chewy beer.

Bottle pours a deep inky black, thick and viscous. Large dark tan head and heavy thick lacing. lots of dark roasted charcoal aromas. Slight dark fruit notes like grape jelly and prunes maybe. Flavor was quite sharp, roasted, burnt almost. Bitter, and smokey. Didn’t notice the licorice really and the bourbon is also subtle compared to other recent PNW BBA stouts, notably the Black Gold. Drier than I expected as well after seeing how thick it was. I will be putting away a couple of these.

Bottle with a thanks to Jon. Pour is perfection... dark brown/black with a massive forming frothy head and thick aromas of molasses, chocolate, dark fruit and anise. Flavor is a little edgy with the ABV, but has a nice mix of anise and dark chocolate with a touch of citrusy hops.

2007. completely opaque black with a dense brown head. some spots of spotty lacing between spots of paint-like lacing. the aroma is really rich and roasty... dark fruit, coffee, pine hops, chocolate, grain, earth, vanilla and some booze. palate isn*t at all sweet as the aroma would make it seem. rather, it is really dry, bitter and hoppy. the flavor is dense and intensely robust... rich roasted grains, chocolate, coffee, cream, ash, oaky/wood, vanilla, grassy hops, pine, earth, dark fruit and young california cabernet depth. alcohol and lots of hoppiness dominate the finish. the aftertaste is huge!... an abundance of whole dark roasted coffee beans. ashiness and astringency linger and dry out the mouth. borderline full body with low carbonation and a slick suave mouth feel. though it*s kept quite drinkable by hoppy dryness...8/5/9/4/18/4.4

2008 sampled shortly after release. there seems to be noticeably more dirty licorice root and bourbon spice in the aroma and flavor profiles. while the palate is sweeter it has more tannic structure which, combined with hoppy dryness keeps me coming back...9/5/8/4/18/4.4