Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Munster, Indiana USA

Great beer to remember a great beer event. Am a bit disappointed with the latest offering. Perhaps some bottle age will round it out...

Thanks to Gypsy19 for sharing! ~Pours black with thin brown head that lasts. ~Dark fruit in aroma, prune, raisin, chocolate, roasted malts and molasses. Also a red wine like scent. ~Boderline too sweet in flavor for me. Lots of fruit, prune and dark cherries with chocolate and malts. Pretty intense. ~Great palate, rich, creamy, thick, just what I want from an imperial stout. ~This beer demands respect. Extremely intense. My mind and mouth didnt know how to react and comprehend at first. Pretty over the top. Hard to enjoy when my tastebuds are exploding from intense amount of flavors. Very rich beer. I enjoyed the experience. Defiently a beer to be to be experienced and not just drunk.

black beer with an intense flavor of molassas, chocolate, and coffeee. arome is very intense and intising. not bitter at all, nice sweet taste.

700th Rating - 2009 Bottle - Thanks motortoddhead!! - Pours dk brown with a medium brown head..medium consistency, not thin or viscous...aroma is all the fun stout bells and whistles, charred wood, cocoa, dark fruit, very dark malt, vanilla and some coffee...flavour is similar, chewy and sticky and dangerously easy to drink, terrific malt balance and an incredible mouthfeel...that was a treat!

Dark brown beer with a dark to light brown head. Pours like motor oil. What lacing there is flows back into the beer leaving the glass nearly clean. Smells of burnt malts and coffee, chocolate and dark fruit. Flavor is smooth, dark fruit and chocolate. As the bottle says, like a blanket. Alcohol is present but fades as the beer warms to let the allow flavors take a more prominent position. Sweet but not overly so. Hops underneath the flavor and in the finish. Nice crisp bite in the finish. Truly a magnificent beer and a great Imperial Stout.

’09 Bottle courtesy of MasterSki. Rating #200! Poured pitch black with zero head, no staining or lacing. Nose is very fruity, almost grape juice notes. Later some roasted coffee, wood, and anise notes become more apparent. Very full bodied with very soft carbonation. Flavor is sweeter than I expected with lots of rasin and anise. As it warmed I picked up more wood and vanilla, very complex brew. Slightly astringent with mild burn from the alcohol. Ok, so this is an excellent beer but overall I was a little disappointed. I think it would be hard for any beer to live up to the hype that this brew enjoys.

(Preface: I must say that I, not being one who likes to lockstep with the crowd, was a doubter before I had this. Well, there’s no doubting anymore. The hype is well-deserved...........) Pours a thick black, as expected. Just a thin, swirly lacing. Aroma is of overly ripe fruit, cherry, prune, plum, a little alcohol but not as much on the nose as anticipated. More cherry comes out the more I sniff it. Now the flavor: Flavor is just everything you could imagine in an impy and more; Rich sweet dark fruit, heavy malts of course, sweet dark chocolate, brandy. Flavor is just so complex and intense, it’s difficult to even describe. Just amazing though - not "over the top", but amusingly, daringly (and deliberately) so close thereto; This one so gracefully straddles the line between mind-boggling intensity and sheer insanity. Like a 350-pound giant walking a tightrope with the grace of a cat! Mouthfeel is thick, greasy, robust, coats the palate and sticks around for a while. Overall? Very possibly the best I’ve ever had the privelege of drinking... I’ll have to have The Abyss again to confirm this, but I think I already know the answer... The hype is for good reason, believe.

2009 bottle. Foam has no chance atop this mammoth of miraculously fermented crank case oil. The gossamer wanes and runs to the edges of the glass for safety. Rummy notes, coffee, blackberry preserves, can be detected three seats away from the glass. A viscous palate reveals all of the nose plus a melange of sweet cuban coffee and honey fruit with a dallop of vanilla bean in their somewhere. One could wax poetic about the layers all day, this is a sipper for contemplation and an overrwhelming experience at the same time. Virtually no carbonation. Bordering on cloying, this beer manages to somewhat clean itself up as honey drizzled figs, kirsch liquor, and soy sauce linger on the gums.