Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

Pours like used motor oil. Dark brown head. Nose is mostly coffee with hints of chocolate behind it. Coats the entire mouth, very easy to drink. Did not want this glass to end. Very impressive, lived up to the hype everyone gives it. Still not my favorite beer though. Re-Rate 2008 vintage on April 12, 2009 for Easter. Pours blacker and thicker than any stout I’ve seen. Taste is burnt sugar, maple, and heavy coffee/chocolate flavors. Smell is mainly chocolate and malt. Palate and appearance made this one just ok. Flavor is too sweet, not as good as any other vintage I’ve had.

2006 bottle. Poured nearly pitch black, with a small brown head that dissipates to a rim of bubbles around the snifter. Wonderfully complex aroma, with plum and raisin in the forefront, along with coffee, molasses, and vanilla. Aroma reminds me of a tawny port. Dark fruit and very sweet malt flavors are nicely complimented by coffee, chocolate, apple, and some hops. Flavor is much sweeter than i expected based on the aroma (and sweeter than I remember from a previous bottle). Syrupy mouthfeel. Roasted malt and hop bitterness finally overcome the sweetness in the finish. It’s a nice stout overall, just a bit too sweet for my liking. (Via Dough77 in Nearly Perfect 10 deux - Big thanks, Tim!)

Bottle @ the wolf tasting. Black with a small film which diappears quickly. Aroma and flavour of rye bread, (smoaked salmon?!) chocolate and very sweet and oily (a bit too sweet and sticky)

thank arvin! split a bottle of this with three old cook friends of mine and couldnt have been happier. this beer has legs, legs i tell you! pours like molasses, tastes like a chocolate terrine with port cherries arvin used to make. what a beer, what a night. makes me miss the ohio river valley. go cards!

Red Wax-2004 - This is by far and away one of the most amazing Imperial stouts that I have ever had in my life. This beer pours a very heavy and oily blackness into the snifter. The aroma is chocolate and cherries, coffee, licorice, lots and lots of dark fruits, raspberries and black berries. Rich and exotic on the palate, and the flavors just keep going and going and you get a completely different taste profile from sip to sip with flavors fighting for the forefront on your tongue. Extremely well-balanced for as big a beer as it is. Extremely complex, rich chocolately and roasty, but very smooth, detecting just a hint of heat and hop bitterness in the finish.

07 Bottle@Dr.Bills.....last one of the night, and yes I paid the price! Was it worth it? Of course. Poured dark with no head. Smelled and tasted of sweet molasses, chocolate, and roasted coffee. Over the top. What a night.

Silver wax, 2007 bomber, courtesy of badbeer. Pours jet black and thick, used oil thick. Very thin brown head that doesn’t do much. Leaves an oily coating on the glass. Super dark malty smelling with alcohol. Tastes like it smells... Dark, oily, malty, thick, sweet, super sweet, maybe some coffee but maybe not. This is officially the thickest beer I’ve ever had, not alot of carbonation to it. It’s tasty but damn, super sweet... and thick.

sooooo overwhelming. there was no sense of enjoyment drinking this. how anyone is able to get through an entire bottle is beyond me. blew out my taste buds...just too much going on without any real balance to me. i couldnt finish the 4 oz sample i had. i think they should stop putting this in bombers, and maybe use the smaller bottles like 375ml or even the 6oz bottles like KRE are in. just makes more sense. i can appreciate it for what it is...but if you take away the hype it just isnt that good. ive split 2 bottles with 2 completely different set of beer geeks who arent really familiar with the breweries across the country, so they dont know about all the hype...and pretty much everyone that it was too much and not very enjoyable. the same people that liked abyss, expedition, and jah-va that i let them try. a damn shame i traded 2 cuvee de tommes for 2 of these