Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

Can’t say enough good things about this beer. It has a smoky aroma, a wonderful gravity, and menacingly black appearance. Highly-complex flavor of chocolate, coffee, cherry, and maybe some soy. I love this beer. It’s only drawback is that you can only buy one six pack on one day out of the year. The years you really want are 2005(orange) and 2007(silver).

Very dark brown, almost black with no head ! Notes of soy sauce and fish. Taste of wood, coffee and some sweetness. Full body with a bittersweet finish.

Bottle, 2006 Edition. Huge thanks to Dough77 for hooking me up with this guy; I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. Jet black pour, beautiful tan head. Decent aroma, roasted malts, chocolate and coffee. Very complex, dynamic, vinuous taste - thick, creamy mocha, molasses.. not getting much vanilla though. Can’t believe it’s 13%... the alcohol is barely noticeable. Incredibly smooth mouthfeel, long lingering . Sick patterns form on the head after every sip; the bubbles swirl into new galaxies every time I put it down. Absolutely delicious, I wish I could drink this all the time.

This is worth the hype for sure. I’m now glad that it took me so long to get my hands on one (2007 bottle) because it gave me plenty of time to try most of the other highly rated stouts. What really impressed me about this was: (where to begin...) - palate - had a great, thick mouthfeel that really set it apart (I guess oily maybe). Flavors - has all of them, it seems, yet nothing too overpowering. Chocolate, nutty, fruity, coffee, licorice, on and on. Every sip I would notice another flavor. Seemed like that more lasting flavor at the end was licorice but early on it is cocoa/coffee/nutty. Update on 2009 bottling - tried one of those bad boys the weekend after DLD. It was cloyingly sweet and syrupy. Definitely needs to age quite a bit. I’ll let the rest of mine sit for about a year. I couldn’t finish the bomber. Most of the other DL’s I’ve had from other years have been aged for some time, so I’ll know better in the future to avoid drinking it fresh.

Bottle. Black colour with a brown head. Aroma is alcohol, licorice, roasted, smoked, coffee. Flavour is coffee, licorice, alcohol, hop, smoked, coffee. Very nice beer which need a long time to drink and enjoy because of the rich flavours.

Ya, I know. This beer is a badass. Not only does it contain every ingrediant under the sun, and maybe some from the underworld, that I enjoy in a stout, but it seems like I can pick out any flavor I want at any time or just let them all blend together to make a fine brew. Like the wizard of beers all I say is, "there is no thing like a cherry stout" and I take a sip. Bam, a top notch cherry stout flavor. Can do that with so many flavors its unbelievable. Fantastic beer. I would say it is worth the hype, but there is no hype over this beer, just fact.

I had to wait in line a long time for this one. I was hoping for something really good, but I don’t see how this is much better than Guinness as it is rather sludgy.

2007 bottle. Thanks to Lamunche for sharing this one. First off probably the best beer I’ve ever had. perfect beer for my 100th rating. color is dark brown and looks like dirty motor oil. has the consistency of motor oil as well. very complex flavor of fruit, chocolate, carmel, coffee, and vanilla. it tasted different every sip I took. I can’t wait for DarkLord Day!