Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

Thanks to trevor211 as the highlight of an incredible beer night. Incredible pour, head rises unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, oddly like the label says. Burnt edges of a brown-bottle head looks like used, fermented motor oil. Thick like a milkshake; Intensely rich; Frothy and needs a spoon. Unreal, scary. Dark chocolate, aged balsamic. tasty, oily, richest beer I’ve ever had ... notes explosive but with more flavor than WWS and Angel’s. Head steams and stays like a picture of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Heavy like malt extract.. incredible viscosity, reminds of Bailey’s irish cream, but tastier! this will end you, we even tried dunking bread in it and it was great. Biggest complaint is that the ’Russian’ on the bottle doesn’t mean anything!

2009 Bottle. Thanks Rciesla for sharing. Wow with plenty of different imperial stouts I have been able to try, this beer is even better than i knew. I also believe the 09 vintage is slightly better. Flavor come together amazingly. Awesome! Pours almost like car oil, 2008 bottle, could have used more aging however had a multitude of different flavors not sure i could have had more than one of these in a sitting.

INCREDIBLY thick and dense. Almost entirely malt. Super smooth, super swampy but very, very sweet and smoked. Like tasting straight, charred, burnt molasses. Unlike any beer I’ve ever tasted. Vanilla-y, super dark, with equally dark head, which rises from the bottom, no matter how it’s poured. Undoubtedly overpowering to most beer novices. A single glass will last you an entire evening.

Pours pitch black. Dark, burnt mocha head - possibly the darkest head I’ve ever seen. So incredibly thick - a pour from eight inches doesn’t make a sound. Aroma is a punch in the face - chocolate, smokey meats, coffee, molasses, maple syrup. You won’t believe it when it hits your tongue. This is by FAR the thickest, most mouth-and-throat-coating beer I’ve ever had the pleasure to try. Un... real. Dessert in a glass. Just incredible. All the notes from the aroma come through in the flavor, with a hint of bitter hops. A great friend of mine took a sip, adopted a horrified look and proceeded to take a few timid steps back from the glass (and proceeded to rate it a 4.8). This is as close to scary as a beer could be, and I swear it feels sinful drinking it. What an appropriate name. I had no idea a beer could be anything like this - puts other beers claiming to be thick to shame. Seriously. No words. I couldn’t take more than a glass... but for that glass? Unbelievable. This beer inspires masochism. And possibly diabetes.

Blind Tasting (unknown year, pretty sure it was 07) Heavy aroma, hints of coffee, chocolate, little molasses and redfruit. Chocolate with huge boozy flavor, thick and bread powdery. Sweet with a sweet clingy aftertaste. Solid beer, with oily consistency, consistency of thick hot chocolate.

thanks to Sparky27 for the bottle! My new highest rated! Pours Black, no brown around the edges, no light passing through, BLACK. Nice dark brown head, mostly diminishes though. Nice webbed lacing. Aromas of chocolate, molasses, vanilla, and coffee. Flavors very much the same, coffee, chocolate, roasted malts, decent bitterness, and not to sweet. This is easily the thickest beer I have ever had, It was like drinking used motor oil, and I LOVED every second of it. I had this side by side with Darkness, and the DL definitely prevailed! Thanks again Eric for sending me my new number 1!

[2006] Pours thick, inky black color. Kind of scary how it clings to the glass. Minimal foam retention, however. Aroma of sweet chocolate and roast malt, with some slight sherry (oxidation) notes present. Flavors are packed full of chocolate, coffee and roasted malt with some good esters to balance things out. Cherry, dates and sweet fruits come through in the finish. Some solid residual sweetness towards the end, and no real evidence of the alcohol content.

Gold wax coating (2006). Ridiculously hefty motor-oil viscosity, thin brown head that rapidly dissipates. Aroma was intense with heavy amounts of chocolate, coffee, dark dried fruits, alcohol, and molasses/brown sugar. Flavors held up the same intensity. Loads of chocolate, coffee (espresso), molasses, as intense as you can get. Hints of some woodiness, a bit of the vanilla, some other cake-like notes. Alcohol was, to my surprise, well-hidden underneath the array of flavors. The body was super-viscous and full, with a very sticky quality that yielded to a softer, drier finish (with some stickiness remaining). This beer is hardcore. I couldn’t drink it very often, but damn... it really is something special.