Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout (Brandy Vanilla Bean)

Formerly brewed at Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Munster, Indiana USA

Serve in Snifter

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From tap@ Mikkeller Bar (Three Floyds event, 25.05.11). The body is black as the original sin, covered by a finger of rusty brown cream head. Seducing vanilla aroma, along with a rounded roastedness, some wood tones, and a fine smell of brandy. Big and rich malt body, incredible smooth in the mouth. Quite sweet and well roasted. But a refined and inviting sweetness, and a rounded roastedness. Some barrel tones, and lots of vanilla. And the brandy is even more significant in the flavor. Subtle bitterness, and some dark dried fruits underneath. Alcohol is never disturbing, just pleasantly mouth-warming. Extremely flavor-full, and balanced to perfection. An amazing beer.

Bottle shared by phaleslu, thanks Peter! Pour, like the others, is black with a thin ring of tan foam. Aroma is way way loaded with fresh cut vanilla bean. It it almost overwhelming but I should probably preface this rating by noting that I love vanilla bean. Also light notes of fruit and roasted malt. Flavor has light notes of fruit and sweet malt but everything takes a back seat to the huge vanilla component. I have consumed undiluted vanilla extract before and it gets quite bitter and harsh. This boarders on that. It gets right up to that line and then backs down. Therefore, I really liked it. But I can see where this would be over the line for some. Great beer, would like to see it with a little age.

From Mikkeller Bar via hallinghansen. Thanks! Black with a small tan head. Aroma of caramel, toffee and milk chocolate. Sweet and sugary caramel and vanilla flavour, creme brulee style. Cloying as [location of dark lords]

Pours black with no head. Aroma is roasted malt, vanilla, soy, oak, brandy, chocolate and liquorish. Flavour is roasted malt, sticky, alcohol, chocolate, vanilla, brandy, oak, liquorish and dried fruit

Bottle shared by phaleslu. Thanks Peter! Pours black like motor oil with no head. Aroma is brandy, vanilla and hints of chocolate. Flavor is vanilla with hints of brandy, chocolate, oak and caramel. Full bodied with low carbonation. Beer has very sweet finish.

bottle graciously shared by phaleslu after a long lecture about taking these beers seriously, no smiling, not hjs, nothing. maybe i was getting a bit of dark lord fatigue by this point, after trying a 06-08 DL as well as the three other barrel treatments. some dude named bbb once went on a tirade about how a rating is no more than a snapshot in time between a man (woman) and the beer they are chugging. and i was probably more in the mood for a nice clean pilsner by this point in the evening, but here goes. plain and simple, this came off as way to sweet and messy for my liking. big notes of sweet vanilla cough syrup, rich caramel apples, and brandy barrel. some roasted chocolate and molasses in the background that peaks its head, making the beer come off as more muddled than complex. also some salty soy sauce for good measure. low marks for bud light drinkability index. not one of my favorite offerings from three floyds. big sweet cotton candy, vanilla, medicine, roast, chocolate, brandy beer. sure to please some, as it is huge on flavor, just not the nice clean flow of flavors i would have preferred. IMHO, pappy>muerte> brandy> brandy vanilla. but at the time of this rating, this is pulling a 4.36 or some such. once a beer name reaches 12 words long, i suppose one should assume they are in for an onslaught of wide ranging flavors. an extreme beer that just didn’t work for me.

Black beer, fluffy big head, colour not estimable due to light circumstances. Sweet, alcoholic, and vanilla, and a nose of - well, tasters around keep saying roasted marshmallows, so I cannot think of anything else. Sweet, zoete drop , and a flavour that I finally can name: guimauves , which translates into English as... marshmallows, but are in reality sugar covered violet-flowers, a French sweets delicacy. Backthroat the spirit/brandy lurks. Well, a ’bit’ slick, a ’bit’ viscous, and I would say quite well bodied... Guimauves, and, even despite its excessive sweetness, quite attractive. I’m surprised I’m not getting more vanilla, but then, the tasting contained a LOT of vanilla. Many thanks to Evan & Matt!

Bottle from Dark Lord Day 2011. Numbered 44/433. How does this one have 30 ratings already and the Brandy has only 6? I’m thinking a few of these are under the wrong ’vanilla’. Anyway, we opened this alongside 2006-2011 Dark Lord as well as the three other barrel variations on the Friday night of my bachelor party weekend. Looks like the other Dark Lords and barrel variants, a deep, opaque near-black in the center and deep amber-brown on the edges. Probably looks lighter than if we had full glasses because so many people were trying these. The aroma explodes with vanilla, with some oak, earth, caramel, coffee, brandy, and chocolate behind it. Pretty much the same thing was going on in the flavor, with tons of vanilla on top of the brandy, coffee, dark chocolate, toasted brown sugar, earth, oak, molasses, and caramel. Full-bodied, with a smooth, sweet mouthfeel and low carbonation. Enough brandy in the background to keep this from being too clumsy but there was too much vanilla in this for me. I do like vanilla but would have been more interested in it if it had more balance. Ranked 4 of 4 of the barrel DL variants in my mind. Still, as you can see by my numbers I enjoyed this a lot.

Bottle #327/433. Big thanks to Kan for contributing this one. Consumed at Sean’s 30th Birthday Party Extravaganza. Served in a Three Floyds / Intelligentsia snifter. Pours a deep black color. Thick body and a thin mocha-colored head. Few spots of lacing and a thin collar. The nose brings forward a beautiful combination of brandy and vanilla with loads of dark chocolate and sweet malt flowing beneath it. Mild oak there as well. The regular Brandy version had a nice nose, but the vanilla takes it to another level. Just like with the nose, the vanilla really takes this beer to a completely different level from the Brandy version. Strong notes of vanilla and an accompanying creaminess. Lots of chocolate and a good dosing of brandy. Somewhat hot, though for 15% it’s certainly not bad. Lots of sweetness and the vanilla plays quite well with that. Full-bodied and quite viscous with low carbonation. By far the best of the bunch as far as I was concerned. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 06-29-2011

Black colour. Vanilla brandy roasty malty chocolate woody very pleasant aroma. Good filling mouthfeel indeed. Sweet flavour, lots of roasted malt, chocolate, dark fruits, brandy, vanilla, wood and liqourice.