Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

Bottle, 2008. So I finally get to try the Dark Lord. I say "finally" despite only having been drinking craft beer for a year and a half, and only really took note of this beer a few months ago. Regardless, this beer is really something special. Aroma of burnt malt, tobacco, toffee, caramel, vanilla, unbelievably rich. Flavor is SO BIG with all these notes, but remarkably with all the burnt malt, all the sweet malt, all the alcohol, this beer remains what I would call exquisitely balanced. I’ve never had such a ridiculously smooth, soft, BURNT beer, nor would I ever have imagined a beer so loaded like this would not be unbelievably sweet and/or alcoholic. The combination of all these things I would expect to make an overdone monster, but as I said, this was something special. Remains so drinkable to the last sip, and rich to the last sip at the same time. For me, the CLEAR winner over Speedway in a back to back sampling. Simply amazing. 9-4-10-5-20/4.8

Rerate from 2009 bottle thanks to my secret santa. Lots of dark fruit notes I didn’t mention the first time (doesn’t mean they weren’t there) with much of the lovely burnt malt, vanilla, toffee tones, but lacking to me this time in balance (extremely hot), and some of the continuing nuances of the initial flavors and certainly the power of those flavors. Mouthfeel also a bit odd with small-bubble, but still mildly seltzery carbonation, not nearly as full and rich. Lots of complaints going on here, just to draw out the differences, either perceived or real, but still a tasty beer. 8-4-7-4-14/3.7; Final numbers are somewhere in between, with a slight nod to the more recent go at it.

2008 bottle courtesy of iowaherkeye (thanks Joey!!). I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time now. I didn’t think that it would, but it lived up to its reputation. Pours an inky black with a thick but quickly disappearing dark tan head. Aroma of super rich sweet roasted malt, caramel, molasses. Flavor of burnt malt, toffee, molassess, caramel, vanilla with burnt toast in the aftertaste. Super sweet and pretty heavy, but somehow super drinkable! Not overpowering at all. Very smooth palate! The flavors really mesh together so well that it’s actually quite hard to pick them apart (and I’m sure I’ve done them a great injustice). I will have to try this again soon! My 2nd rated imperial stout, just below Expedition. 8/4/9/5/18

Update 9/20/08: Second time around, this just wasn’t as good. Tasty, but much too heavy. Had to downgrade my rating.

Update 7/31/09: 2009 bottle. Aroma of dark fruits, apple, booze, and roasted malt. Flavor is very very boozy and hot. Wow. This is definitely a step down from the 08 version. Also a touch vegetal for some reason. 8/4/7/3/15 (3.7/5)

Thanks to iowaherkeye for bringing this bottle to his ’farewell to Iowa’ tasting. 2006 vintage. Poured an opaque black color. The head was brown with an orange tint. Smelled of chocolate liqueur, hay, and a dash of soy. Full bodied and sweet. Roasty and chocolate malts, dark fruits, and a bit of soy rounded out the flavor profile.

From bottle - 2008 : Pours dark as night, as was expected. A dirty brown head, that immediatly stains my glass the same dirty brown color. The nose is wild, it stings the nostrils. Lots of alcohol, some chocolate, myple syrup. Taste is different then what i had imagined, its is pretty nice and mellow. Some chocolate, alcohol, whiskey. Where i was the most suprised was the thickness. I heard it was thick, but my god, this stuff is crazy thick. But smooth, a chocolatey aftertaste, and of course some alcohol. I agree with garthicus, i am sweating a little bit toward the end. I dont think it could have ever really lived up to all that i had imagined it would be, but it was still pretty damn good.

Shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, Tupalev,Jerc & Blankboy -- courtesy of HogTownHarry - sweet jebus. 2008 bottle. Appearance - Pitch black, like a charred corpse, scummy brown head. Aroma: Spicy, whiskey, chocolate cake and fudge. Flavour: Alcohol, Alcohol! Chocolate and Baileys, tia maria, thick and dense, long and tingly finish. I was sweating afterward, I got me some Dark Lord sweats! Slainte Harry.

22oz bottle from 2008. Drank this bottle right after Dark Lord Day ’08, but forgot to rate it. Poured black with a tan head. Surprisingly, the alcohol was not very present in the aroma. Had an ass-kickingly delicious aroma of chocolate, toasty malts, and syrup. Heavy mouthfeel of chocolate, and malts. Lingering taste of coffee. No taste of the alcohol, since it is masked behind all the heavy flavors. Is it worth the hype? Not if you drink it immediately. This evil bastard needs time to prepare for your eventual face-raping of oily chocolate and coffee goodness. It’s a waste to drink it too soon.

I hope that what im drinking wasn’t ruined in transit to me it being summer and all. It pours black with a brown burnt sugar carmel colored head. aroma is alcohol, malt, with a heavy carmel scent. it tastes of bitter chocolate toasty malt and burnt caramel. this beer is punishing me at the moment. for the first time ever I think I can say that my stomach is in pain, but my mouth is in love. at first I thought that i coudn’t handle this beer but its growing on me. I still in my honest opinion enjoy stone’s imperial stout a little more because its something i can drink easily. Please take into note that it is august and this beer was shipped via ups. Re- Rate: Heavy chocolate aroma, some coffee, bourbon, caramel. The taste is heavy on chocolate, boozy but well masked. A million times better than my first dark lord which was bad.

At Vero, kisses to whoever shared it! Thick, viscous pour of pure blackness. Really intense nose packed with coffee and chocolate purity. Smooth, smooth, incredible. Raisins dancing. Complex, gorgeous, and viscous. A superlative brew, fully deserving of the hype.