I thought this was fantastic fresh, and un-freaking-real with a bit over a year on it, like a roasty liquid malted milk ball. I had opened one of my last two last night and the molasses dominated. It was about all I could taste. Not bad by any means, but not near as good I remember. Have others ran into this? My first thought was that maybe it peaked between year one and two but I don't have enough experience with previous vintages so I thought I'd open this up for discussion. Cheers!
I noticed that with the 2009. It was awesome at a year-ish out, and slightly less so at two years. I'm interested to see what it's like now! I still have one left that I need to crack open.
I had a 2012 and a 2010 within a couple weeks of eachother and to me they were like 2 completely different beers, and yes, the 2010 was much sweeter - and in my opinion WAY better. I got more chocolate flavor than molasses from it though... It was unbelievaly good! ...as was the 2012, but the 2010 just blew me away
I had 2008,2009,2010,2011, and 2012 all at this years release. I appreciated them all, but the 2008 was my favorite. This is how I would rank them; 2008 2011 2009 2012 2010 Not quite sure if the batch is playing the significant role here or just the stage its at in the aging process.
Have you tried it before? If not, don't sit on it. If you have had it, decide your reasoning on why you would want to age it. Are some flavors too dominant that you want to mellow out, or is it a bit too hot?
In my opinion, this vintage is going downhill. I agree that it tastes totally different than it did fresh. It's still drinkable but nowhere as good as it used to be.
I haven't had older vintages, but 2010 was really amazing. I had 2011 and 2012 within 5-6 months after 2010 and those vintages were no where near 2010. As you mention, 2012 fresh was a complete different beer than 2010. In my opinion 2010 was better than 2012, but I could also see how some people may prefer the fresh bottle.
My wife and I drank a 2010 Abyss yesterday morning. The beers aroma was super charged with anise. Thankfully the anise wasnt a dominating flavor. The beers flavors reminded me of a semi sweet bourbon chocolate ball spiked with anise. Sadly that beer was consumed way to fast.
