Time: 8:00 PM
Location: Josh and Jessica’s House
Willow McCormick
Jessica Roberts
Mike Merrill (paying)
Josh Berezin
JB: Today we have the two hottest beers in the world right now. We have several bottles of the prized Full Sail Top Sail and the Deschutes Brewery’s The Abyss.
JR: The Full Sail has a lot of gold on the label, which I like very much. The wax on The Abyss is making it really hard to get our beer! Is that part of the strategy?
JB: I’m just excited that we have these, and some other people don’t. And they’ll never be able to get them.
JR: That feeling is why you paid ten dollars a bottle!
MM, struggling to open The Abyss: There’s another layer of wax under the first layer!
30/1000: Deschutes Brewery’s The Abyss, of Bend, Oregon
MM, pouring: It’s thick, like blood.
WM: Chocolaty.
JR: It’s so intense, I wouldn’t want to drink a normal amount of this beer.
MM: “It’s dark, it’s deep, it’s mysterious. The Abyss beckons. Enjoy the journey.”
WM: I like the taste of it, but I’m afraid it would give me a stomachache.
JB: I hope you all like it, because I bought several bottles. I think I’ll age them.
MM: Do you think they’ll age well?
JB: I have no idea. Can you do that?
JR: I’m going to let mine come up to temperature, I think it’s too cold.
31/1000: Full Sail Top Sail, of Hood River, Oregon
MM: It’s weird that these both came out at the same time.
JR: I don’t think one or the other stole the idea, but both picked up on the same trend.
JR: Oh this tastes very different. Almost fruity.
WM: Chocolaty.
JR: It’s a lot less bitter. Intense and filling. They both are.
MM: I like this one a lot better. Like coconut.
JB: The fact that the Top Sail is not as cold is making a big different. The The Abyss has more flavor than we’re getting from it.
JB: These are definitely both winners. Compared to the ones in the porter tasting we just did, these are both so clearly good.
JR: Okay, so these are excellent and crazy beers.
JB: I don’t think they’re that crazy.
JR: I’m having trouble drinking all that I have. Josh, you’re just going to down it?
JB: Yeah!
Just 969 to go!
Hey, I just drank the Full Sail last night and now you blog about it. Crazy. to me it was very much like a bourbon on the rocks but with a much more velvety mouth feel. I drank it in a wine glass and like it more and more as it warmed up. This is becoming one of my favorite blogs at the moment and I would like to suggest reviewing something lighter now and then. At the Belmont station they have Genesee Cream Ale from New York. Not the style of beer you have been reviewing. It is more how I wished american domestic lagers would taste – full body, creamy but light. A beer for the game.
It is like the great Kolsch Beers of Germany.
We definitely will be branching it out into other styles of beers. We have to drink a thousand different kinds! Maybe it’s the winter weather that’s sending us into the darkest of beerlands. Thanks for the suggestion, we’ll check it out.
Where did you find the Abyss beer? I have been looking everywhere for it and taste it in my dreams
I found it at New Seasons, and they seemed to have a decent supply of it, but it was going fast. It might be worth calling around and talking to the beer/wine person at each store. Good luck!