Deschutes Questions

Copied and pasted from this thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...toic-released-today-4-28.174062/#post-2382233

"At Boulevard, we blend fresh beer with barrel aged beer to keep the beer true to our intentions, not to save money. We find that barrel aged beer tends to lose body and blending back with fresh beer gives a fuller mouthfeel/body. We also blend fresh beer to balance any spirit/whiskey character infused during aging. We like whiskey, but if we want to just drink whiskey, we'll do that. We like there to be a noticeable whiskey character, but we want the beer to taste like beer with a hint of whiskey, not like a glass of beer with a shot of whiskey dropped in."

 

@GaryatDeschutes, didn't hear anything about this today for the release. Is the Single Barrel Abyss project still in the wings?

 

Seriously!? I want to know everything there is to know about this. Take my money!

 

How can they improve on Black Butte Porter? It doesn't get any better than that.

 

A barrel aged obsidian stout would be amazing.

 

On the other hand, compared to the Bruery and Lost Abbey, Deschutes' track record for releasing carbonated, non-infected BA beer is a hell of a lot better. One infected batch of Abyss and one batch of Mirror Mirror is nothing compared to the slew of QC issues from those two breweries.

 

If you mean by step up, to perhaps acquire more barrels so they can produce more beer with the same amount of quality sure I am all for it.

As for making a beer 100% doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be better. Different sure.

It's not a question of stepping up the beer, if you think it's already great to begin with.

It's all a matter of taste. At this point they can just do what they do in my opinion. That's because for the most part currently, for me, they just can do no wrong.

 

since 2010 the Abyss has TOO much wine barrel presence IMHO. it's interesting etc. but at times it's more of an "OTHER" type of interesting to me. i think that's cool if that is what your taste buds like but i will point out quite a few people seem to have the same coincidental opinion that 2010 ranks best between its release & all subsequent/ more current releases. i tend to feel that's not accidental or a few wishful thinkers.

Abyss is "barrel aged" but it's to the point that it's in a classification of "barely bourbon barrel aged". i'd love to experience it 30% or bourbon barreled. i would also think it could make a fine rye barrel aged finished product as well.

 

If "whiskey" character were the only goal of barrel aging that explanation would be satisfactory, but that perspective is certainly not without support. One hundred percent barrel aged beers tend to maintain more oak characteristics that some blended beers tend to lack, especially the vanilla-oaked character that can only be obtained through long term aging.

Deschutes the Abyss is certainly fantastic though, probably because of the blending. There are certainly poor examples of 100% BA and poor examples of blended-BA though, and I would attribute some of that, and the hot whiskey taste you get in some beers, to the use of "fresh barrels." That, in conjunction with a malt bill that doesn't provide enough residual sugar to stand up to the bourbon or whiskey-notes - add in 100 other possible factors...

Interesting to see the results of each type!

 

I think they're just fine the way they are now. They were easily my favorite brewpub to visit on my recent trip to Bend when you factor in everything such as food, family friendly etc.

Fresh Squeezed has a lot of fans, but I suppose if we're being picky here then I would like a couple of different IPA choices. It seems I buy most everything they sell in AZ except for the IPAs.

 

They've got four year round IPAs (Fresh Squeezed, Inversion, Chainbreaker, Foray), multiple fresh hop choices (Chasin Freshies, Hop Trip), a couple of seasonal offerings (Hop Henge, Hop in the Dark), all distributed in 22s and most in 6pks too across a big distro footprint. Then there's a couple of hoppy 6+% Pales (Armory and Red Chair). If none of those grab you, chalk it up to your palate, but I don't think they're lacking in IPA choices.

 

Foray sounds good but I haven't seen it in SoCal. I agree that they have a solid line up.