Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

2006 bottle, courtesy Tony at Oldsmar Tap House. You’re the man, Tony. Pours a pitch black color with a creamy, caramel-colored head. Prominent lacing remains on the glass and draws you in for more. Rich caramel aroma, with brown sugar, licorice. Milk chocolate arouses the senses, as does strong roasted malts, mainly showing off chocolate. Flavor is through the roof. Roasted malts, caramel is very rich and substantial. Licorice and chocolate is present. Really the chocolate is big and just fantastic. So rich and smooth, obscenely easy to drink. Simply an unfair beer from Three Floyds. Laws should regulate this company from being able to create such incredible beverages.

Bottle from 2006 (Gold Wax) thoroughly enjoyed April ’08. Pours a dark brown, near black with a large, lasting brown head. Aroma is simple and complete. Sweet and chocolatey with roastiness and molassess. Wonderful. I can begin to rate the flavor as smooth and balanced. A blend of sweet, roast, vanilla, molassess, and I begin to lose all interest in rating while I sit back and savor this brew. So simple, yet so full of everything. There is a reason this brew is so highly regarded. Thanks to a great trader - Footbalm - for sending this gem.

2006 Bottle - Black as midnight with a deep complex aroma with lots of roast, chocolate, figs, molasses, vanilla, licorice and more. Flavor is a bit disappointing with heavy burnt treacle / molasses characters dominating especially on the finish. Certainly other flavor components were there as well including chocolate, roast, burnt toast, alcohol, etc. I get that the concept of this beer is sheer big huge and it is indeed a great beer but I find it a bit over the top to be enjoyable for more than a few sips.

I wanted to like this beer....being all hyped and such...but.... it had a strong soy sauce taste.... It almost tasted like a good IRS mixed with a old sam adams triple bock...... but thanks to whoever shared this with me at the BA alesmith release.....I forget his BA name...but thanks so much for letting me try your valuable dark lord!

Can’t say enough good things about this beer. It has a smoky aroma, a wonderful gravity, and menacingly black appearance. Highly-complex flavor of chocolate, coffee, cherry, and maybe some soy. I love this beer. It’s only drawback is that you can only buy one six pack on one day out of the year. The years you really want are 2005(orange) and 2007(silver).

Very dark brown, almost black with no head ! Notes of soy sauce and fish. Taste of wood, coffee and some sweetness. Full body with a bittersweet finish.

Bottle, 2006 Edition. Huge thanks to Dough77 for hooking me up with this guy; I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. Jet black pour, beautiful tan head. Decent aroma, roasted malts, chocolate and coffee. Very complex, dynamic, vinuous taste - thick, creamy mocha, molasses.. not getting much vanilla though. Can’t believe it’s 13%... the alcohol is barely noticeable. Incredibly smooth mouthfeel, long lingering . Sick patterns form on the head after every sip; the bubbles swirl into new galaxies every time I put it down. Absolutely delicious, I wish I could drink this all the time.

This is worth the hype for sure. I’m now glad that it took me so long to get my hands on one (2007 bottle) because it gave me plenty of time to try most of the other highly rated stouts. What really impressed me about this was: (where to begin...) - palate - had a great, thick mouthfeel that really set it apart (I guess oily maybe). Flavors - has all of them, it seems, yet nothing too overpowering. Chocolate, nutty, fruity, coffee, licorice, on and on. Every sip I would notice another flavor. Seemed like that more lasting flavor at the end was licorice but early on it is cocoa/coffee/nutty. Update on 2009 bottling - tried one of those bad boys the weekend after DLD. It was cloyingly sweet and syrupy. Definitely needs to age quite a bit. I’ll let the rest of mine sit for about a year. I couldn’t finish the bomber. Most of the other DL’s I’ve had from other years have been aged for some time, so I’ll know better in the future to avoid drinking it fresh.