Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

Sampled at Sean and Ryan’s tasting, 2008 vintage. Deep black with a small tan head. Rich sweet aroma of malt, brandy, and chocolate. Huge taste of toasted malt, brandy and cognac, coffee, molasses. Lingering toasty bitterness. Fantastic imperial stout.

2005 bottle many thanks to footbalm. This really is an amazing brew. Pours a deep black, no light can get through. Appearance of black oily tar. Medium dark tan frothy head. In my opinion the biggest down side to this beer (in fact the only down side) was the aroma. It was very hot, yes there was chocolate, raisin, cherry and roasted malt in the nose, but there was a large overwhelming presence of alcohol. Flavors where very complex.. dark chocolate, sweet cherries, vanilla, roasted malt, a bit of smoke, coffee, molasses, oak, toffee, raisin, and dark fruit. Also notes of hops in the flavor profile. This imp stout packs a large punch. The mouth feel is extremely thick, oily, and mouth coating. The finish lasts and lasts. One sip and you get a huge amount of flavor and it doesn’t quit. I would love to try this again if I can get a hold of it. This is my #600.

2007 bottle thanks to drmatt. I’d been holding onto this a few months and finally got the guys together to share this bad boy. This poured dark as pitch with no head. Aroma was not great. Soy maybe? The taste though was all I ever could have wanted and expected from an Imperial Stout. This was sweet with chocolate and molasses, but not cloying. Flavors kept coming at you. What a complex brew! Mouthfeel was thick and so wonderful it was like my mouth was having an orgasm!

Ok, I’m supposed to tell you how great this beer is. But I can’t, because I don’t like it. Surely, it’s an amazing product. A rich malt syrup packed full of chocolate, alcohol, roasted malt, brown sugar and molasses. It tastes expensive…and, to me at least, not good. I just don’t enjoy drinking it. It takes effort to sip this sludge. True enough, I don’t care for Imperial Stouts in general, and some will argue I should rate this on style guide lines alone. But nobody here does. If people did, macro American swill would have higher ratings and the Imp Stouts wouldn’t dominate the top ten list. It pours jet black, with small tan head. Looks nice. Smells of rich leathery choco-malt. The problem is that it also tastes like high concentrate rich leathery choco-malt. I must point out I drank this young, the 2008.

08 bottle with huge thanks to lb4lb for hooking me up with this beer, I owe you man. Franksnbeans talked me into opening this...why the hell not? Poured a thick black color with a slight tan head that slowly receded to a layer but left some light, spotty lacing. Nice, strong aroma of roasted malt, coffee, light chocolate, light tobacco, and a nice dark fruit presence. Sweet, malty entry with strong chocolate and molasses and undertones of roasted coffee, nice sweet dark fruit presence (mainly plum, light raisin, a hint of berry) leading into a moderately bitter, dry finish with undertones of roasted coffee and light fruity sweetness. Solid mouthfeel, not quite as thick as I anticipated, but it still coats the mouth nicely. Very nice beer, I can’t thank you enough for hooking me up Deniz, you are the man.

multiple samples from different years. Figured I might as well rate the fresh sample, so this is for the 08. Pour pours black with a thin tan head. Aroma is chocolate, coffee, and a bit of cherry. Flavor is up front coffee, chocolate, molasses, caramel, toffee. Very viscous. This clings to every part of my mouth. A bit of hop bitterness, some hint of the abv. A very nice beer, worthy of the praise it gets.

2008 DL. Blows me away every time. So much on my palate. Interesting lacing, yellow fingers like wine, more a skin then fingers. Zero head. Nose of dates, raisons, toffee, chocolate. Flavors blew up my palate, coffee, tart, dark fruits, Balanced carbonation. The VB and Oaked versions are much more balanced, this one is a bit more of a coffee/chocolate bomb. Need to age for a few years.

2008 bottle. Didn’t expect this one to be as good as it was. One of the few top ten beers worthy of it’s rating. Smells of faint quality coffee, tart cherries, chocolate, very sweet, vanilla. Wonderful mouthfeel, thick as shit. Taste is wonderful too. A huge beer with great balance between all the flavors, with some great hop characters.