Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

sooooo overwhelming. there was no sense of enjoyment drinking this. how anyone is able to get through an entire bottle is beyond me. blew out my taste buds...just too much going on without any real balance to me. i couldnt finish the 4 oz sample i had. i think they should stop putting this in bombers, and maybe use the smaller bottles like 375ml or even the 6oz bottles like KRE are in. just makes more sense. i can appreciate it for what it is...but if you take away the hype it just isnt that good. ive split 2 bottles with 2 completely different set of beer geeks who arent really familiar with the breweries across the country, so they dont know about all the hype...and pretty much everyone that it was too much and not very enjoyable. the same people that liked abyss, expedition, and jah-va that i let them try. a damn shame i traded 2 cuvee de tommes for 2 of these

2-1-08 bottle shared with lb4lb thanks to acertain!!! (my #500 rating)
2007 bottle
Thick pitch black pour with little light tannish brown head on the first pour. Small spotted lacing - good appearance, thick and dark. Rich, roasted malt and sweet alcohol aroma. The alcohol in the nose is well balanced with the sweet malt smell. I get no coffee, but a little vanilla and some molasses as well as it warms. The flavor is quite sweet, not nearly as roasted as I had imagined. It has that rich, decadent dessert sweetness. It almost tastes like a rich dark chocolate, alcohol infused cake. The mouthfeel is memorable - very thick, very syrup-like. It is quite creamy and rich and dense on the palate, but is on that thin line of being just too much. It actually feels weighty on the tongue. No real carbonation but I don’t miss it in this - it is fitting here. Finish is nearly tart, it is so sweet. Aftertaste has the sweetness as well as the residual alcohol taste - not really my favorite aspect of this beer. Feels like slightly watered down molasses on the tongue. Overall, very well made - but the hype leading up to trying this for the first time may have spoiled it a bit for me. Obviously a good brew but not the best Imperial Stout I have had (in fact there are at least 4 or so that come to mind that I feel are much more amazing than this). Aside from that, a great beer for my 500th rating. Thanks again acertain!
10-18-08 bottle (2008 bottle)
Much better and more yummy! Higher rating deserved.

Superbowl Sunday 2008! GO PATS! I really wanted to pregame in style! 2007 bottle - Apperance- Perfect dark black color, i can only describe it as a dark lord black. Beutifull, very dark brown head. Oily, leaves a lining around the glass as you drink it or swirl it around. If i opened this bottle freshly new, i would rate the appear as a four, but for an aged beer, i expect it to look a little oily, the color looks amazing. Smells supurb, with molasses, a faint milk chocolate, and a very strong expresso scent. Tastes amazing! What every imperial stout should strive to be! I personally think it lives up to the hype. Roasty hersey chocolate sweetness, caramel favor that i may be mistaken, and is really vanilla?, not just roasted coffee, but heavily dark roasted expresso, and maybe a sweet syrup taste also. It also really tastes cask or oak conditioned, like an aged stout. I can’t imagine how good the actual oak aged or cask Dark Lord tastes. Incrediably smooth, very drinkable for a 13% alc beer. The % is totally hidden in this lush, rich, delicious flavor! The best texture i have ever experianced. This is truely the best beer i have ever enjoyed. I’m afraid to drink the 06 or 05 bottles which i have traded for, thinking they might be on the verge of getting that soy taste. But this is amazing, i would not age it any longer! Thank you Three Floyds for putting the effort in this beer to make it the head of a class of the best beers in the world!

2005 addition graciously provided by KP. Thanks again, KP! Dark black color. Licorice, chocolate, and vanilla aromas. Astringent, boozy, roasted, smoky, and sweet flavors. It was really nice to finally try this, but I need to revisit sometime with a fresh bottle.

2007 bottle from acertain. Thank you so much for your generousity!
2008 fresh bottle as well. This is a combination of the two ratings, numberwise, and description wise it’s the ’07
Poured dark black into a snifter with ruby edges when held to the light, and with no head. Mustered a slight dark tan film as it swirled in the glass, but no more than that.

Smell is of char, roasty malt, figs, definite soy note but not in an unpleasant way, and big notes of tart cherry, sweet creamy chocolate and especially lots of molasses. Some alcohol showed, but didn’t hinder it, really.

Taste is dark and very rich. Fudge like chewy chocolate, with light hints of soy sauce and the same highly sweet molasses flavor and tart cherries again. Didn’t get any notes of coffee whatsoever.
Very low carbonation and a rich mouth coating body. Would actually prefer a touch more carbonation in this. Overall, rich, and smooth and definitely a very creamy, robust flavor, but in the end it was cloyingly sweet, I found. Definitely not one of my favorite Imperial Stouts, but not one I’d ever turn down trying either.
Fresh 08 bottle is more slightly more hoppy, bitter, and carbonated but still incredibly rich and flavorful with lots of dark sticky malt. Definitely my favorite I’ve tried, and the 4.4 is indicated by this vintage fresh.
Fresh 09 bottle came across with lots of licorice and was very sweet and sugary. Perhaps slightly thinner than I remember, but definitely sweet than the fresh 08 bottles were, which lowers my overal score for the beer...

2007 Silver waxed edition. Much love to Phatz for hooking me up with this bottle from DLD. Much like Chuck Norris, this beer is not afraid of the dark, the dark is afraid of it. Essence of blackness. Thin, foamy, brown head that doesnt stand much of a chance againt this black hole of a beer. Some serious legs on this beer. Rich, assertive aroma with lots of earthy sweetness. An almost bourbon like characteristic of vanilla and oak. Dark fruit, sherry like dryness with alcohol spice. At first, there is also a strong shot of roasted coffee, although its not as assertive as I thought it would be. The flavor starts off with warm and gooey chocolate sweetness and then explodes into boozy vanilla, figs, and brewed coffee. Finish is dry, with husky notes of freshly roasted coffee beans and a hint of hop bitterness. The body starts off fairly smooth, but seems to get chewier and bigger as time goes on. By the end, its almost like drinking a thick mug of hot chocolate. The alcohol is not shy at all, providing a warming glow throughout. *SLAP*, the Dark Lord commands your attention. Not a beer to be taken lightly, as the big flavor and big booziness are nothing to trifle with. Nice, big and bold RIS flavors with sweet, roasty, and bitterness throughout. Is it worth the hype? That’s up to you...

Approximately 6 oz. sample from 750mL bottle consumed at tennisjoel’s tasting on 1-26-08. 2007 vintage. This was the seventh of ten beers that we tried. Thanks to Joel for generously sharing this great beer and to ElGaucho for generously offering this beer to Joel. Complex, fruity aroma features plum, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, rum, port, and raisin scents. Pours a syrupy, very dark brown with some bubbling and some chunks of particulate. Looks like rich, dark chocolate. Slowly developing sable head. The flavors are so complex as to be difficult to describe. They include coffee, port, sautéed chocolate, lemon, cream, plum, and banana. There is some hops bitterness, but most of the bitterness seems to derive from the roasted malts. Delicious! Full body; this has to be the thickest beer I’ve ever sipped. Oily but lively on the sides of the tongue. Silky smooth, creamy, and syrupy in the palate. The texture is awesome and may be the best I’ve ever experienced in a beer. If I could give it a 6 for palate, I would. Dark Lord lives up to the hype! If Three Floyds toned down the coffee and turned up the hops, I bet this would be the best beer I’ve ever had. As it is, it comes in a notch below Surly Darkness among the best imperial stouts I have yet to try but head and shoulders above everything else. It was easily, and not surprisingly, the best of the night. I should point out that the casual beer drinkers who came to the tasting did not particularly like this beer, but who cares? I loved it! This is the beer that caused me to change my favorite style designation from IPA to Imperial Stout.

Bottle shared by Marcus - many thanks. Really dark aroma. It’s sort of treacly. Opaque brown/black color, and the head left quickly. Fullest body. Mild creamy carbonation. Flavor is very dark malt. It is very malty, but it is not roasted or toasted. Just really dark and rather sweet. The finish is much the same, but perhaps a little wood came forth. It’s really smooth (could be the molasses), and the flavors are not simple, but don’t match any single flavor (other than molasses) I’m familiar with. To drink it is to know it. I’m not likely to forget it.