The Abyss or: Another reason to go to Goodwill

    I have been "watching" the very fast evolving U.S. beer scene for about an year and a half now, sometimes actively, but not as much as many others, and I have seen my fair share of beer releases and associated hype in and around Twin Cities, MN. In that interval I have been able to buy, or drink on tap, pretty much every limited/hyped beer that I have been interested in that has made it to the tap or shelves, and acquired some that have not. Examples include Black Note (184/0), Bourbon Barrel Aged Plead The Fifth (95/7), Black Biscuit (92/4), Canadian Breakfast Stout (618/7)... The numbers in the brackets are Wants/Gots with Wants in Red and Gots in Green. Point being, to a large extent, I am on top of it as far as the cities are concerned.

    There was a recent thread on Beeradvocate titled, "Are you getting sick of the "scarcity" of limited releases?" Although I never posted on that thread, my answer leans more towards YES. I understand that most of the problem is with consumers like myself who take shit from (some) breweries but man, are they full of shit! And (some of) the distributors, and even (some of) the store managers. Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout was a huge hit in the earlier part of this year and quickly made it to #3 on Beeradvocate then top 100 (Pliny the Younger is #3 as of now). Maybe that success got to their heads or maybe I am just bitching but here's what I have seen: Bourbon County Brand Stout 2009 was so well distributed that it is still sitting on shelves at some places and they have chosen to NOT distribute the 2010 version to MN, or WI, it seems; Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout didn't make it to shelves in many stores and you had to ask for it at the counter, if you were lucky enough to find a store that had any left of the one case (12 bottles) they received; and they released a Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout for $45/22 oz. bottle. Before anyone argues that it took that many dollars to produce, read this and take cues. Some madness surrounding these releases in these threads [1, 2] and there's a lot more if you care to search the forums or follow the ISO/FT's.

    Deschutes is fairly large brewery that brews the highly decorated Abyss and not so decorated but very sought out Dissident, among other beers under their Reserve Series. Deschustes started distributing to MN early this year and we have seen other beers from their Reserve Series quite a bit on shelves and I was expecting, like most, that we will get to buy these ones in decent quantities. After all the batch sizes are huge. Turns out that merely 30 cases and 2 sixtels of not so stellar Dissident made it to the entire state. The Abyss, while not so limited was also pretty fucking hard to find unless you are (were, it's almost gone) prepared to call scores of stores and drive around. Even then, there are (were) no guarantees. Also, the distributors don't tell retailers when and how much they are going get, and some retailers have been douchebags about it too.

    Heritage Liquor (fantastic beer store, A+ on Beeradvocate) is my go to store and Ed, the boss, had posted that Dissident would be very very tough while Abyss would be more manageable. I needed (wanted, but I am a part of the problem too) both of them for some trading commitments so I made it to Heritage's annual Beer Geek Christmas, when the said beers were due for release. We made there early in the morning because no one was answering the phone and were told to come back later, in the evening when they would release the beers. So, we went back in the evening: Unbelievable as it is, every decent store has more than 12 regulars so no one could be guaranteed a bottle, and so, Heritage had to raffle the buying rights away! That's right, you had to win a lottery to be able to buy a 22 oz. bottle priced around $13.00, excluding the 10% tax. And me and my buddies were out of luck. Result? Calling all the stores we could with no success, and much indignation, justified or not.

    So I kept on following the forums and someone posted that Princeton's in Maple Grove had a few bottles of The Abyss the last evening. I had to drag my good friend and have him drive me under tough driving conditions (snow) to Princeton's (after trying two more stores) that's almost 25 miles away. Since the tires of the car we had were not very good, we had to exit the highway to clean the snow off them as well! After all this peril, we were able to score 1 bottle of The Abyss and 0 bottles of The Dissident. One of the co-owners, Bill, also seemed irritated at the madness surrounding the recent limited releases, and seemed to be of the opinion that it is an ugly side effect of an otherwise good thing (craft beer growth). Feeling bummed, we left the store with the one bottle of The Abyss that I planned on sending to my trading buddy in Chicago, and hoping to get some for myself on tap.

Link to the map if you don't believe my claims about the distance :P

    Anyway, because my friend had to drop off some clothes at Goodwill, we drove back to our neck of the woods and decided to stop at Big Top at Midway, St. Paul that's very close to Goodwill (locations D, E in the map above). It's a good beer store but not in the same league as Heritage or Princeton's, mostly because of the staff/curse of chain store, I guess. So I ask the guy if they had any Abyss and he said they just got their case in and it'll be $12.99, and, "How much do you want?" Expecting a limit, I asked if I could get 3, and he asked whether the both of us wanted 3! I don't know whether I didn't want to hoard or couldn't justify spending, or both, but I settled for 3 (my buddy was not interested). At this point I had given up every hope for The Dissident but I asked anyway, and bingo! The entire case that they had just got in was up for sale! I might have bought more than the 2 I actually bought, had I not had it on tap and found it disappointing. So happily we walked out, and drove to Goodwill where it got even better: I found 2 nice medium sized (~10 oz.) snifters for a dollar each, a sturdy ass Chimay chalice for $2, and a nice and tall weizen glass for another $2. Between more than 50 miles of driving in bad ass snow that took way longer than the Google Maps estimate of a little over an hour, and ups and downs of finding and not finding what we headed out for, it was a morning well spent! :)

    Although I haven't sent my package to my trading buddy, 2xAbyss and 1xDissident are going to him and the rest is going into my pseudo cellar. I was also able to get Bourbon County Vanilla because of the said trading buddy, without having to drive around, and passed Rare Bourbon County because I fail to see the value. The same week I found The Abyss on tap on Stub & Herb's and this is what I thought of it:

The Abyss
Deschutes Brewery
American Imperial Stout
11.0% ABV
65 IBUs
10 oz. of 2010 Reserve on tap on 12/16/2010, served in a wide mouthed chalice like glass. Described by Deschutes as, "Stout brewed with licorice and and molasses with 33% aged in oak and oak bourbon barrels," and, "It's dark. It's deep. It's mysterious. This imperial stout has immeasurable depth inviting you to explore and discover its rich complex profile. The flavor of this special brew draws you in further and further with each sip. The Abyss beckons. Enjoy the journey."

Appearance 5/5

Poured pitch black with a tiny muddy hued bubbly head that dissipated soon into a thin collar and a mocha like thin sheet of foam on the surface, leaving some lacing behind. Couple of swirls coaxed a darker and bigger head, and some legs. Looks the part.

Aroma 4/5

Sweet chocolate and coffee notes in the smell. Roast. Bourbon. Lots of harmonious notes that were weak to begin with but got stronger as the beer warmed up and the glass got emptier. Quite complex aroma but closer to a Russian Imperial Stout in my opinion because the roast and coffee seem strongest and barrel character is subdued compared to other barrel aged American Imperial Stouts. Still, the oak-vanilla notes come forward later and meld well towards a unified goodness.

Taste 4.5/5

Perhaps it was the cold serving temperature, or the fact that the style itself is very wide, or perhaps it's not as good as the respect it commands, but the first sip was thin and underwhelming. But things got better with temperature bringing forward a bourbon like sweetness, bright coffee like acidity that could be lacto derived, and a superb finish that's massive on roast, medium-dry, with a very long aftertaste that is full of dark chocolate.

Mouthfeel 4.5/5

Again strongly dependent on temperature, the beer felt thin and overcarbonated at first but got rich and silky later.

Drinkability 4.5/5

A very good tasting and smooth drinking beer that matches well to its alcohol content too. Not my favorite interpretation of the style but a very well done brew.

The Abyss I liked a lot but The Dissident not so much when I had it on tap. I will be aging my bottle until its best after date of 11/2011 to see if there's any improvement.