Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

06. Poured thick with a deep brown head. Malt and coffee to the nose. Drinks like Pepto and finishes with some chocolate. Could drink all day if it wasn’t so hard to get. Thanks to TheRealBastard for sharing! Re-rate* 08. Poured exactly like all the other years, black and like oil with a thick brown head. Aroma of alcohol, coffee, and some chocolate. Flavor was dominated by sweetness. Other than that, awesome beer.

22 oz bottle, 2007. My 2nd Ratebeer anniversary and the last of the top-rated coffee-ish stouts i had planned for a blind tasting. Maybe an unfair advantage for the younger DL. Pours an ominous black with no trace of head. Nose is an interesting blend of coffee, licorice and leather with hints of Turkish tobacco. Full bodied and velvety with a trace of carb. Taste is sweet coffee and dark chocolate. Roasty finish with grapefruit. The last 6 ounces were thick and chalky sludge. Wow, but i’d prefer not. Given the choice i’d go with the Speedway.

Pours like used motor oil. Dark brown head. Nose is mostly coffee with hints of chocolate behind it. Coats the entire mouth, very easy to drink. Did not want this glass to end. Very impressive, lived up to the hype everyone gives it. Still not my favorite beer though. Re-Rate 2008 vintage on April 12, 2009 for Easter. Pours blacker and thicker than any stout I’ve seen. Taste is burnt sugar, maple, and heavy coffee/chocolate flavors. Smell is mainly chocolate and malt. Palate and appearance made this one just ok. Flavor is too sweet, not as good as any other vintage I’ve had.

2006 bottle. Poured nearly pitch black, with a small brown head that dissipates to a rim of bubbles around the snifter. Wonderfully complex aroma, with plum and raisin in the forefront, along with coffee, molasses, and vanilla. Aroma reminds me of a tawny port. Dark fruit and very sweet malt flavors are nicely complimented by coffee, chocolate, apple, and some hops. Flavor is much sweeter than i expected based on the aroma (and sweeter than I remember from a previous bottle). Syrupy mouthfeel. Roasted malt and hop bitterness finally overcome the sweetness in the finish. It’s a nice stout overall, just a bit too sweet for my liking. (Via Dough77 in Nearly Perfect 10 deux - Big thanks, Tim!)

Bottle @ the wolf tasting. Black with a small film which diappears quickly. Aroma and flavour of rye bread, (smoaked salmon?!) chocolate and very sweet and oily (a bit too sweet and sticky)

thank arvin! split a bottle of this with three old cook friends of mine and couldnt have been happier. this beer has legs, legs i tell you! pours like molasses, tastes like a chocolate terrine with port cherries arvin used to make. what a beer, what a night. makes me miss the ohio river valley. go cards!

Red Wax-2004 - This is by far and away one of the most amazing Imperial stouts that I have ever had in my life. This beer pours a very heavy and oily blackness into the snifter. The aroma is chocolate and cherries, coffee, licorice, lots and lots of dark fruits, raspberries and black berries. Rich and exotic on the palate, and the flavors just keep going and going and you get a completely different taste profile from sip to sip with flavors fighting for the forefront on your tongue. Extremely well-balanced for as big a beer as it is. Extremely complex, rich chocolately and roasty, but very smooth, detecting just a hint of heat and hop bitterness in the finish.

07 Bottle@Dr.Bills.....last one of the night, and yes I paid the price! Was it worth it? Of course. Poured dark with no head. Smelled and tasted of sweet molasses, chocolate, and roasted coffee. Over the top. What a night.