Deschutes: The Abyss (USA: Imperial Stout: 11.5% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still. Frothy brown coffee froth coloured head.
Nose: Cinnamon. Coffee beans. Quality rich coffee. Vanilla. Creme brulee. Mocha. Cocoa dust. Liquorice. Light spirity vodka character. Cherry pocked biscuits.
Body: Creamy, bitter cocoa. Milky rich coffee. Coffee cake. Liquorice. Cinnamon. Treacle. Molasses. Custard. Bourbon.
Finish: Coffee cake. Alcohol air. Cocoa dust. Coffee ice cream. Bourbon. Bitter cocoa. Treacle.
Conclusion: A restrained take on a big beer is the best way I can describe this. For a barrel aged beer the actual barrel flavours are comparatively subtle. Though that is not an insult and they do build up over time. Initially the base beer completely pushes through those barrel aged notes. Considering how many beers are overwhelmed by their ageing, especially as of late, I approve of this more restrained method.
Initially it booms with rich coffee – from coffee cake in the body, rich coffee throughout to more chocolate touched mocha. So much coffee. Considering I don’t see coffee beans listed as an ingredient this has an impressive range of coffee flavours from the malt alone.
Around that is a sweet cinnamon spice and vanilla notes that makes it seem more dessert like, while a bitter cocoa keeps to that dessert imagery which keeps the sweetness reigned in with delicious bitter chocolate styling. Beyond that a light touch of liquorice similarly helps keep it grounded against the sweetness.
As time goes on and it warms the beer becomes bigger and more treacly, here the barrel aging rises above showing itself as just vanilla notes and spirit hints to a more powerful weight while still letting the actual beer side do the main work.
Overall the coffee cake and cinnamon still dominates, the barrel aging now a rousing second, and a wealth of other notes to examine coming in a far third. Only very slightly boozy feeling, very restrained for such a big beer but with a LOT of flavor there.
It doesn’t have the spark to make it to the very top of the beer mountain for me, but is instead an ultra polished, robust and rewarding beer that is just below that high line. It is exceptional, just fighting in the most crowded of fields – despite that it does all that it does brilliantly though. No flaws, unless you find it being just a touch boozy a flaw, me I like the reminder of what I am drinking.
Excellent, just against even higher competition for the very top – definitely drink it if you get the chance, you will not regret it.
Background: Well, this was a lucky find. The last bottle of this in the shop! Yes I grabbed it as soon as I saw it and did not let it go until I bought it. Deschutes – The Abyss, like Surly Darkness is a beer that has been in ratebeer’s top 50 for years. I remember missing a chance to get it in the Great British Beer Festival something like a decade ago – it sold out so fast. Anyway, so in Tanakaya Liquor Store, at the same time I found Surly: Darkness I also found this. Two previously untried Top 50 beers in one place at one time. I was spoiled. Again at a decent price of less than ten pounds, which I you remember what this used to be flipped for is an amazing price. This is barrel aged, from back in the day when that wasn’t as common as it is these days. Going by the bottle it looks like this was about a year old by the time I drank it – even better! Frankly there were probably so many other great finds at that store, but with only so much carry space I had to go with what I could carry.
