Tonight's beer: Deschutes The Abyss (2013)
Coffee and chocolate to open, with flickers of smoke and ash and burnt fruits, smeared all over a solid backbone of toasted dark bread. Caramel and molasses around the edges, with threads of vanilla and tobacco. Earth and grass and maybe peat emerge toward the end, as the beer slides toward surprisingly dry. Maybe a flickering hint of baking spice.
Thick, a little syrupy-sticky, adequately carbonated. Astonishingly smooth, almost slippery. Substantially chewy. Distressingly little hint of the 11% ABV payload—just a vague glow in the belly. Soft sticky traces linger.
Um, wow. I don't make much secret of my love for this beer (because there wouldn't be any point, really), but I still maintain that this is a thing of beauty. Probably my favorite Big American Stout: Not the biggest of the booziest, but smooth and balanced and astonishingly well-integrated. Stupefyingly complex and staggeringly intense, terrifyingly drinkable. As close as I get to chasing a beer down. A beer that stares back into you.
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| Deschutes The Abyss (2013) |
Coffee and chocolate to open, with flickers of smoke and ash and burnt fruits, smeared all over a solid backbone of toasted dark bread. Caramel and molasses around the edges, with threads of vanilla and tobacco. Earth and grass and maybe peat emerge toward the end, as the beer slides toward surprisingly dry. Maybe a flickering hint of baking spice.
Thick, a little syrupy-sticky, adequately carbonated. Astonishingly smooth, almost slippery. Substantially chewy. Distressingly little hint of the 11% ABV payload—just a vague glow in the belly. Soft sticky traces linger.
Um, wow. I don't make much secret of my love for this beer (because there wouldn't be any point, really), but I still maintain that this is a thing of beauty. Probably my favorite Big American Stout: Not the biggest of the booziest, but smooth and balanced and astonishingly well-integrated. Stupefyingly complex and staggeringly intense, terrifyingly drinkable. As close as I get to chasing a beer down. A beer that stares back into you.
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