Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout (Bourbon Barrel Aged)

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

Serve in Snifter

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Enjoyed two glasses of this stuff at the Floyd’s. Black body, dark brown head. Sweet hershey’s dark chocolate aroma with tangy roast underneath. Some bourbon fruitiness. Big acidic dark chocoalte plus deep sweet milk chocolate, some dry roast in the finish. There’s a big caramel sweetness in there as well but there’s a lot of other stuff (chocolate, roast and bourbon) to mask it. Patent acidity and bouron pear/apple fruit as well as alcohol heat, too. A classic examplar of the BA Imperial Stout style. It’s not pushing any boundaries but no matter - it’s delicious.

I did enjoy this malty beast for more than an hour, savoring all it had to offer. Aroma: Bourbon, mocha, bitter chocolate, toffee, vanilla and slight burnt cherries. Appearance: Opaque with dark brown head and some sticky fine webbed lacing. Flavor: Bursting with dark chocolate, mocha and powerful bourbon. slight notes of vanilla came through on the palate as well. The body seemed to be a little more lean than the original. Palate: Full in body with sticky sweet malt that had a slight warming effect as it ran down the palate. Overall: A fantastic variation of the original and I hope to tase many more BA Darklord’s in the future! Cheers to the whole FFF family for making this beer possible!

on tap at the 2006 Release Party.

I would say this one certainly lived up to its expectations. pour was as black as night with a tan head which faded quickly. as people walked around the 3F parking lot it was readily apparent whenever someone had the Oak Aged DL. nose was in the cup and a smile on their face. a great balanced blend of roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, oak and brown sugar. not quite the full-mouthfeel I expected but still had a nice slick, oily feel to it. delicious!

What can I say that hasn’t been said? I spent about 30 mins at least sipping my 6oz. It poured a slick oily black with a dark thick head. Aroma was chocolate and bourbon mixed with coffee and caramel. Flavor was bourbon chocolate truffle. A nice bite toward the finish lets you know there’s a lot happening in there. Overall I can’t argue against it.

Impenetrable. Opaque. Obsidian, blanketing the glass and seemingly sucking light from all that’s around it. A creamy, thin, deep khaki tan head resides on top. Dark mocha fudge hits the nose, paralleled with tracts of bourbon and Godiva liqueur pumped into delicatessen dark chocolate, caramel laden turtle candies. The bourbon is a major player, but it’s more of a first violinist rather than a soliloquy. The currant, tar and other black earth elements from the non-barrel aged vintage don’t consciously resonate. That being said, it’s still salvation for the nose.

Letting the liquid gracefully enter the mouth, we can effectively say that this is a perfectly barrel-aged beer. Dry hop bite and black patent seem to take a steak knife to the tongue. Thick, oily toss of the fluid seems to make it ooze even more slowly over the tongue. Espresso grinds come up big, sweetened by this dark chocolate liquor accommodation. It’s oppressive, but a welcomed tyrannical dictatorship. Heavy caramel accents intertwine with a bitter dark chocolate character for a hearty espresso grinder’s day in paradise. When it fades out from the mildly carbonated and chewy bourbon/chocolate sluice, we’ve got some dense pound cake qualities that’s choc full of flavor and enhanced with greasy mocha grinds, not to mention the dark chocolate fudge and liqueur-laden Dove chocolate bars. Quite a bitter and fiery flick at the tongue’s tip on its way out, and it seems to devilishly pry open a few of the tongue’s weaker taste buds and ignite them with a peppery flare. Thick, palatable justice in the hard-to-halt viscosity.

An absolute pleasure (and thanks to my wife for her allotment as well!) The barrel does supplant some of the intricacies that help to orchestrate the cadences within the traditional Dark Lord vintage, though this barrel aged beer would be any delicatessen’s dream to craft an ale in such an awe-inspiring manner.

Jet black pour tan well lace head. Aroma of bourbon & toffee & butter & big roasted malts even a toch of old coffee. Pal is well carbonated hugely coated & creamy. Flavor lingers in a big way lots of buttered toffee & bourbon traces of alcohol in the finish almost to much butter & bourbon for me but still just huge & delicious Very big & very good. Although the BAging seemed to make the DarkLord less unique.

UPDATED: MAY 4, 2006 I wanted to like this more. Even with the massive Dark Lord and the big tastes there, the bourbon still managed to play a big role in this beer. I also found Surly Klaus to be dominated by the barrel aging. On tap at the brewpub 3F’s DL day 2006. The body was black with a thin orange head. The aroma was mushrooms, molasses and some strong bourbon. I also got the coffee notes. The taste was dark chocolate and too much bourbon. There was also coffee and a woody dryness in the finish. I prefer the regular Dark Lord.

On tap at the 3 Floyd’s brewpub on Dark Lord Day. $6 for a 5 oz portion (It would be a very nice gesture on the part of the 3 Floyds brothers to charge a lot less for such a small amount, considering some of the people who attended Dark Lord Day traveled hundreds of miles from many different states just to get some of this, but that’s another topic. Anyway, poured a pitch black oily color with a very thick creamy brownish beige head. Aroma was a beautiful combination of slightly burnt molasses, dark rich chocolate, cherries,vanilla,bourbon,oak and alcohol. Flavor was a complex and very rich combination of dark chocolate,marashino cherries,expresso,vanilla, oaked bourbon and warm alcohol. Excellent !!! This needs to be bottled and produced in larger quantities.

Draught, 2005 version – sampled after a year in the barrel: darkly opaque black garnet with a strong and full, chocolate head. Fairly complex aroma: burnt coffee bitterness, dark chocolate, vanilla and molasses soaked in alcohol and exuding bourbon sweetness. A year in the wood has created an incredibly soft, smooth and velvety textured liquid. On the tongue, a significant amount of the high-alcohol harshness has been retained, along with underlying charred malts and some residual hop bitterness. Light sour cherries mix with vanilla and bourbon sweetness. Pretty impressive that a beer can actually hold up this well for a whole year in a whisky barrel, but if anything could….very enjoyable, but I do like the regular Dark Lord a bit better…

Gee,guess where I had it?? And I donated half of it to MrFacto to hand bottle. Very big and nice but a strong blast of bourbon and alcohol.I think it is very boozey now. Still has that thick chewy molasses and a ton of other well balanced flavors but so much booze.