Deschutes Brewery, The Abyss

My experience of this phenomenal beer began with the bottle. The graphic design of the label is simple, elegant, and speaks volumes about what lies underneath. As I’ve undertaken this beer reviewing project, I’ve begun to recognize that presentation begins with a good looking bottle, and so I appreciate the effort that went into crafting this one. The top of the bottle is dipped in black sealing wax, much like the red wax you’d find sealing a bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. It’s beautiful, and only slightly difficult to get through in order to reach the beer beneath.

The Abyss is an Imperial Stout by Deschutes Brewery. It is part of their reserve series, and I had a bottle from the 2008 vintage. It is labeled as 1% ABV, and its bottle claims that it is brewed with licorice and molasses, and that a third of the batch is aged in Oak and Oak Bourbon casks. The 22 Oz bottle I bought was at Sundance Market in Eugene, and I paid just under $10 for it.

Pouring this beer, I was struck immediately by its richness. It pours a deep brown black, so dark that it seems to absorb light. It’s thick, and the texture of the beer as it clung to the glass while I poured it led me to expect a sweet beer. The head with lustrous, and coffee with cream colored. It left beautiful brown lacing down the sides of the glass, not too thick but nonetheless pronounced.

The beer in the glass allowed no light to pass through. It was, indeed, a dark @$$ beer.

The aroma is complex, very alluring, seductive. If the aroma were a person, it would wear three inch black patent leather pumps, nothing ostentatious, but certainly elegant and a touch cocksure. The aroma begins with roasted malt as the first and dominating characteristic, giving way to molasses, bourbon, and maybe a hint of chocolate or coffee. The licorice advertised on the bottle is not at all evident in the smell of the beer.

The first hit of the flavor is that it’s much, much drier than I expected. From the look of the beer as it poured, I expected a cloying, sweet beer. I was surprised to find the fermentation to be nearly complete, and without a lot of esters or other strong reminders of a high temperature fermentation. It’s very clean. After getting over the initial shock, I find the flavor a bit astringent, and very warm. The 11% ABV is certainly apparent all the way into the stomach. This beer would be really comforting on a snowy day. The flavor is a little bitter - all from the roasted grain and the licorice root, no hop character I can perceive. The astringency seems to come from a combination of licorice root, oak barrel, and dark roasted barley. It is by no means overwhelming and is certainly not a liability. The molassas bitters show themselves in the aftertaste.

The mouth-feel is dry, bright, and very warm. It’s remarkably drinkable for an 11% beer: dangerously so. My one criticism is that as the glass progresses, the licorice seems to overtake some of the other flavors and interfere with the complexity. A friend assures me that after aging, this is less of a problem. The only issue I see here is how to exercise the willpower required to posses such a beautiful thing and allow it to age without breaking into it. I was able to finish a 22 of this in an evening, but any more than that would be a remarkable feat for anyone. Certainly not a session beer, but again, at 11% what would you expect? With a wonderfully complex flavor, this is a beer that is comfortable to sip slowly for a long, long time.