It’s bottled! December 28th they finished wax dipping. Now, all we have to do in Northern California is wait. For what, you may be wondering?
75 Cases
6 Kegs
That’s what’s on the way to Northern California. The expected arrival time for this is the last week of the month. Then, it will have to be distributed to the right places. I’ll keep you updated, if you’re interested, on where this beer will be tapped and available. For those who don’t recall, Abyss is Deschutes‘ Oak Barrel Aged Imperial Stout that took the beer geek world by storm last year.
From the Abyss Press Release:
“The Abyss has developed somewhat of a cult following,” reveals Deschutes Brewery’s Jason Randles. “In fact, we’ve had reports from some bottle shops where six or seven cases have already been reserved through single bottle orders.”In addition to being a beer aficionado’s favorite, The Abyss has been showered with industry and consumer awards including being named the “Best Stout in the World” by Men’s Journal’s October 2007 issue, Top 10 on BeerAdvocate.com’s World’s Best rankings, “Gold Medal Imperial Stout” at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival and “Best Beer Above 7%, International Champion Beer & Supreme Champion” at the 2007 International Beer Challenge.
The suggested retail price on this year’s Abyss is $10 for a wax dipped 22-ounce bottle. I personally thought last year’s was a bit hot and needed some time to lay down and mellow out. That said, it was still a strikingly good beer. You can bet I’ll find a couple bottles of this year’s release as well.
As many of you know, I have a pretty big soft spot in my beer-loving-heart for all things Deschutes. As an Oregon boy, through and through, it seemed I was practically raised on Black Butte Porter and, of course, Mirror Pond. In fact, before moving to California I was pretty sure Mirror Pond invented the Pale Ale.
The bottle to the left here is the ‘old’ bottle they’ve used for years, showing the iconic Three Sisters mountains, which are located West of Bend, where Deschutes crafts their world-famous beers. I love this region of the state I grew up in, have wonderful memories of vacations there when I was in college: camping near Tumalo Falls, swimming at Klein Falls, climbing Smith Rock and rafting down the Deschutes River – not to mention the hikes around the area. All this means something to an Oregon boy, and seeing the picturesque mountains on the bottle of Mirror Pond was pretty cool.
So imagine my surprise when I read they’d be changing their label. My first impressions were not good, as I’d imagined some hostile takeover in Bend and these new labels would be some modern funk with neon-greens and varying shades of hot-pink. Oh, the thoughts were bad and I remember saying something under my breathe about ‘chage for change sake’ and some other cold thoughts.
Ah, the good news. Deschutes wasn’t taken over by mad marketers and a
corporate strategy gone awry. I received my package from Deschutes a few days back, along with their marketing material, and was genuinely impressed, not only with their new logo, but the rationale behind it. You see, the “Mirror Pond”, pictured to the right, is actually in the city of Bend, at Drake Park. The artistic rendition seen on the old label isn’t a picture any of you could go out and snap. Notice, the clear lack of moutains in this picture. (oh, if you click on the picture you should see the full size image I borrowed)
“Mirror Pond is in our front yard,” said Deschutes founder, Gary Fish, “and we wanted to show our customers just how beautiful it really is.”
The new bottle is consistant with the artwork on all of Deschutes year-round beers (their Reserve and Bond Street lines have a different look altogether), as you can see on the bottle to the left. It seems to capture the artistic rendition of a clear day in early fall, with trees in the process of dropping their leaves. You’ll also notice the label’s dominate color scheme has gone from a cold-blue to a warm reddish-brown. Yes, Deschutes did good on this new look, and we can all be happy that they didn’t see any need to change what is on the inside.
I did learn a couple cool facts about the beer in my press kit.
- “First brewed in 1997, it’s the only Oregon craft beer made exclusively with locally grown, whole flower Cascade hops…” I admit, I really don’t know how much any of us should be impressed, in case they’re ‘overstating’ something fairly benign, or if this is as cool as it sounds. I love the idea that they’re using local hops, just not sure how ‘local’ local is, if you know what I’m saying.
- “Named one of America’s ten best beers by Playboy” – who knew?
- “Mirror Pond also won a gold medal at the Brewing Industry International Awards in 2002.” – Industry recognition means a lot, in just about any industry.
So, yeah, this is my mix of “new label announcement” and a stroll down memory lane. If any of you are from the region, please remind me of the name of the hot springs up there. That was a fun stop while in college too, a quick lesson that not all people should be naked. Also, if any of you can convince someone in the brewery to send me a few bottles of all three of their fresh-hopped beers, I’d be very appreciative.
With Summer just a couple of weeks away now, it is time to start exploring the new seasonals hitting the shelves. Over the next few weeks I’ll be reviewing a few of the more widely distributed Summer beers on the West Coast, starting tonight with Deschutes’ Twilight.
While hard to find within their literature or website, it seems as though the beer is submitted to competitions as a Bitter, a rather misleading name for today’s uber-hopped beer enthusiasts. The beer pours a nice light golden color, similar to an orange-blossom honey color, with a big frothy head that lasts for several minutes – a beautiful pour. The aroma is mild, overall, with a definite balance that falls toward the American Hop varieties. Apparently the Twilight is dry-hopped with Amarillo hops – and I can see that. Not an agressive aroma from the dry-hopping as you find in many west-coast IPAs, but certainly pleasant. In addition to the hops, there is a distinct bready quality to the malty sweetness.
The taste is where this beer gets interesting. I didn’t quite know what I expected, but this wasn’t it – and that isn’t a bad thing. Initially sweet, but that doesn’t last too long as it is quickly overwhelmed by a peppery & somewhat resinous hop bittering that is moderate in strength and lasting well into the aftertaste. There also appears to be a mild astringency that hits the cheeks, but this actually serves to add a bit of character to a beer with only 35 IBUs.
Twilight finishes pretty dry and has a chewy texture for the medium body – quite interesting. I believe it drinks best in large gulps, rather than small sips, to really enjoy the refreshing qualities. The beautiful thing about summer beers like this is that they’re still great when they’re a bit warmer than optimal temperature. If there was a fault in the beer it’d be that lingering resinous bittering mentioned earlier – but all things considered this is a great option for days in the yard or by the lake. Score: 3/5
Written By Jeff Barber, PBN Staff
The first stop, since we wanted to start light, it was the first tent, and they had the gold medal American Pale Ale, was Kona Brewing for their Fire Rock Pale Ale. While good, it lacked the hop character that you would expect from an American Pale Ale, especially for the gold medal winner. Next up was Full Sail Session. I’d heard Rick rave about this beer as an easy drinking light lager and I wasn’t disappointed. Noticed a slight sweetness in the flavor. Very drinkable. Next we went to Schooner’s for their pale ale. Jose had grabbed one in his haul after judging and said it was really good. Compared to the Kona, it was much better. Not sure why it didn’t finish in the top 3. More hops than Kona in both aroma and flavor. Still easy drinking too.
Next up was our first WOW beer. As most of you know, I’m a big wheat beer fan. I would have to say the Blue Frog Hefeweizen is now one of my favorites. Prominent banana and spice in the aroma that promises a great German hefeweizen flavor. The flavor had some orange in it as well as the banana, excellent body, and a nice full head. Great summer beer. I’ll look for this one. Talked to Nick, the head brewer, who also told us he was pouring a bottle conditioned DIPA. Since it was still early, we figured we’d come back for that. Nick was very appreciative of past pub he’s gotten on Pacific Brew News.com and offered to send us some beer to put on one of the tasting shows. I will follow up with him on that.
After this, it was two pilsners. First was the gold medal winning Radeberger Pils. This was very good with a prominent spicy hop aroma and some noticeable bitterness in the taste. Deserving of its’ award. After this we tried the Trumer Pils since it is well known as a good pilsner as well. While it was quite good, it had less aroma and less hop bitterness. Joerg, our German Pils fan, agreed that the Radeberger was better.
Next we finally moved on to IPA’s. We started with the Deschutes Inversion which we obviously knew from past experience to be good. It should also be noted that the Deschutes had the longest line most of the time (only beaten by the longer food lines). Grassy hop aroma followed by the expected piney hop flavor. Excellent. After this it was the Sequoia brewing General Sherman IPA. This was also quite good with a little more noticeable malt. For those, who prefer a little more balanced IPA this was a great choice. Jose picked this one over the Inversion.
At this point, we took a break to enjoy the sights and have some lunch. Lisa from Beermann’s provided us with some great sausages from the trunk of her car that really hit the spot. We hung out with her and Starlight for awhile getting ready for more beer, while drinking a Beermann’s Maibock (quite good as well). I will say, while there were some excellent sights, i.e., females, I think I was more focused on the beer. I must be getting old.
Starting back with the beer adventure, we went back to Blue Frog for their bottle conditioned DIPA. This was outstanding. Very well balanced for such a big beer with some slight alcohol (about 8% ABV). The bottle conditioning also gave it great body. Very hoppy but with enough malt backbone. Excellent beer!
After this, it was off to Lodi Beer Company’s for a couple of their beers. First up was the Harvest IPA. While good, it had a touch of sweetness and not enough hop character for an IPA. The other beer we tried was great however. Even though our palates might have been challenged at this point, we wanted to try the Orange Blossom Wheat. This was a great citrusy wheat beer with a noticeable orange aroma. Cloudy. Slight wheat beer “tang” noticed. I could definitely drink a few of these on a hot summer day.
Next was another Blue Frog DIPA, my only duplicate, while waiting for the 3:30 tasting of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. As I said before, a great DIPA. The Bigfoot was great as usual. A big beer in all the best ways.
At this point, my notes start to get much harder to read. I know we had the Placerville Brewing’s Strong Blonde and enjoyed it. We may even of had some more that I didn’t write down.
All in all it was a great day though. Miller Park is a great location. We never had to wait very long for a beer. We missed a lot of good breweries though. There’s only so much you can do on a day like this, Still I would have liked to hit Rogue, Sudwerks, Allagash, etc. I also noticed that a couple of favorites from past brewfests were not in attendance. Bison Brewing, past brewers of the unique Honey Basil Ale and a great Belgian Strong Ale, were not there. I guess now that Peter Hoey has moved to Sac Brewing they don’t do brewfests. Also, Etna Brewing was nowhere to be found. Both were missed.
By the way, the girl in the white dress and platform sandals I mentioned earlier was seen pouring beer in one of the tents. When we walked back to the car to meet Katherine, our ride home, we saw the same girl being propped up by her boy friend who was desperately trying to get her to the car. She could barely walk and undoubtedly was going to either pass out (if she was lucky) or be “selling buicks” in a short amount of time. Walking in 3 or 4” platforms while absolutely smashed-now that’s a challenge.
Lastly, my best of show beers were the following.
- Blue Frog DIPA
- Blue Frog Hefewiezen
- Radeberger Pils and Lodi Orange Blossom Wheat (tie)
We are lucky to live somewhere that holds events like this. I can hardly wait for the California Brewfest in September.
- Jeff
