Deschutes Brewery is in the Up From the Cellar spotlight this month and we again hack through the wax to the bottle cap underneath. Today it is The Abyss from way back in 2009!
Per the beer’s description from their website, The Abyss is brewed with” licorice and molasses with 33% aged in oak and oak bourbon barrels.” and it pours an lighter shade of black that no light gets through with tinges of dark brown on the edge. When I first popped the cap, an unmistakable hit of licorice greeted the nose from a couple feet away. It isn’t as prominent in the aroma as it warms up but it is there lurking in the background. I say this because licorice and anise can really overpower a beer to negative effect. Here it is a component not a star. What I really get hits of in the aroma are cigar and tar notes. Not BBQ smokey and not campfire but essence of cigar being lit.
The taste has coffee grounds and a hint of cherry like sourness. Molasses sneaks in a bit as well but this has a fruit tinge that I was not expecting at all. A taste that eclipses the licorice. I am not getting any off notes here either which I take to mean that I didn’t hold onto it for too long and that it might last past the 5 years I held it.
Colder, the flavor drifts more to fruity than the dark with an almost Oud Bruin quality to it. Warmer it really showcases a dark smoke and caramel fig viscosity that is quite after dinner drink worthy. This is a fireplace with friends discussing world events type of beer.
VERDICT – This is a success! I have had Abyss (in various incarnations) in the past five years and this stands up with them in taste. There are multiple flavors intermingling. It isn’t “hot” in the alcoholic sense and it flat out tastes great. It fared much better than the Stoic did and it does encourage me to want to lay down a bottle of this year’s model if I can find one.
Sean, you got lucky! 2009 is the vintage of The Abyss that is well known to have some sort of infection or flaw in most bottles, and they do not tend to age well. I happened to have some at a bottle share at Story Tavern last Sunday, and it was definitely affected. While still drinkable, it was not what it should be after 5 years, characterized by the not-supposed-to-be-there ashy and tar tastes you were describing. I think that fruitiness you mention was there too, and I don’t recall that from other aged years of the beer. This beer should age well for 10 years at least. It would be great to taste the 09 alongside an 08 and a 10. Time for a vertical tasting of The Abyss! I got them back to 2008, I believe.
That would be great for a six-year vertical! My bottle must have escaped what struck others. I count myself lucky indeed.
09 Abyss is the beer that changed my beer life forever. I got one on tap while living in Seattle on a recommendation from a waitress. I have never had such a transcendent food/drink experience. There was something so multidimensional and interesting about that beer and no brew has moved me as much since. I followed taps until it ran out and was very unhappy to learn that all the bottles had been gone for weeks and no more for a year. I now have bottles from 10 through 13 on the shelf and they only come out for friends who can appreciate the glory. One aspect that would be interesting to read about is temperature. Especially for the heavier styles, I would like to hear if you let it warm a bit and how the beer changes. I’m always surprised at how much better and more dynamic a beer can be if it’s not ice cold. Cheers!
As you rightly pointed out Greg, temperature is a key component to cellaring. My cellar is the underground garage that stays pretty consistent in the hot L.A. weather. Admittedly, I haven’t been scientific about measuring it exactly.
Once in the glass, I usually let it warm up more than most people because I am not a super fast drinker of the big beers. I tend to linger and I have found that some beers lose some flavors while gaining others. For the June beers, I will make an effort to describe that change a little more because it is important.
Greg, to reiterate Sean’s comments, temperature is the main factor in cellaring and thereby successfully aging beers, followed closely by light (as little as possible) and then oxygen (which is inevitable over time, and is actually part of the aging process).
55º F (red wine aging temperature) is the optimal temperature for almost all beers that will age. If you can maintain that temp year ’round, you got that important component covered. If you can’t keep your “cellar” at 55º without some temperature fluctuations throughout the year, that’s okay — as long as you keep the varying temp range to a minimum; those fluctuations play an important part of the process as well.
If, for example, you can only keep the beers in a range of 60º-65º year-round, that is much preferable to a “cellar” that varies between 50º and 75º over the year.
Definitely pick up the book “Vintage Beer”by Patrick Dawson, which Sean reviewed in last week’s Food GPS / LA Beer Blast, for virtually all you need to know about cellaring. I too just finished reading it, and it taught me a lot of what I’d been doing right (and wrong) with my aging project.
And one last question: Greg, have you ever had an 09 Abyss that was aged for at least a year? If so, I’m curious if you detected any off flavors in yours, compared to the aged versions of the other vintages.
Thanks for adding the info on light and oxygen!