The Abyss

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip out to Bend where the Special Lady Friend's parents live. Bend is a lovely little town, that appreciates the outdoors more than any town I've ever seen. You have multiple mountains with in driving distance (the three Sisters, Broken Top, Bachelor), there's more than enough skiing in the winter, along with endless amounts of hiking and bike trails. It is also home to one of my personal favorite breweries, Deschutes. While we were there, Whit's family and I took advantage of the free tours of the Deschutes facility, and it is top notch. They had a giant, refrigerated room where they stored all of their hops making me want to set up a cot in there so I could live in the aroma euphoria. Naturally, that didn't fly with them. Anyway, later that evening after we had celebrated Whit's birthday, her pops and I cracked open a tall boy of The Abyss, a brew that has won many awards. Watching it being poured, I could tell this was going to be a hardy stout that was going to be a damn fine desert. It came with a very thick, brown head that kept true to the thick feel of the beer. It smelled of beautiful sweetness, a mixture of malt, molasses, and licorice. The taste was primarily of licorice and left nothing hanging at the end. I can understand why this drink was difficult to find. In the end, I wanted more, but even if there had been anything left in the bottle, it was so filling I don't think I could have had any more.

Beermigos rating: Onesy. This is a well crafted beer, and really shows Deschutes mix of creativity with simplicity that is a characteristic of their beers. I was tempted to rate this as a "Pondering the meaning of life with your Beermigos," however, I'm not a big fan of black licorice so the taste wasn't quite at that level for me. However, if you do enjoy black licorice, you might disagree with my rating.