Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

I probably won’t be the only one having this as their first rating of the year. 2007 batch, and the beer is amazing. Pours like motor oil and has a thin brown head. Great aroma, smells sweat with hints of coffee and chocolate. Great flavor and it seems very smooth for a beer with 13%. Worth the great ratings. I am going to DLD 2008, even though I somehow got sunburnt last year waiting in line.

2005. Bottle shared with puzzl, maxxdaddy, and feedmec00kies during our pre-new years drinking session. Pours dark black with slight light brown head. Aroma is full of coffee and chocolate. Flavor is very smooth and full of coffee, chocolate, and peanuts. While not my favorite style, I can see why this beer gets so much hype.

2005 bottle shared by puzzl (big thanks!) This is one of those beers that people usually save for a milestone rating, like 100 or 1000. Well I hear this beer is supposed to go to 11, and 121 is like 11 squared. So there. Pours dark black with minimal tan head. Aroma of chocolate, coffee and..peanuts? Taste is wonderful, with all three of these elements meshing well together. Palate is super smooth and silky. Finish is big on coffee and chocolate and lasts for a good while. Pretty good I say, though not extraordinary. Obviously worth a rerate later.

#400.Finally cracked the bottle I received in trade a while back. Had side by side with a bottle of Darkness, Big Eddy and an 06 Expedition. this one is all about tons of malt with little hop presence. Lots of plum, sweetness on the pallate. Seems more like a dessert beer to me, as this was the sweetest RIS i have had. This was actually my least favorite in the taste test, still good, but expected a bit more due to all the good ratings.

Rating #500- 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages shared at Madness with the Moose. All Impy Stouts need the thickness and smothness of this beer. Rating the palate on this a 5 is like saying that Kelly Monaco is mildly attractive. This is one beer that you truly need to drink to appreciate super complex aroma, great appearance, perfect palate and phenomenal taste. Gonna have to make it out to DL Day one of these years just so I can buy six bottles and not have to trade for it.

HUGE thanks to moejuck for this epic brewski!!! 2007. Pours out a visibly viscous black that stains the glass with tiny particulates. It is so impenetrable that I can see a perfect reflection of my face on the surface of the beer. Light couldn’t pass through a single drop of this stuff. The head is mocha-coloured and is short-lived. Brutal nose that assaults the senses with bountiful roasted coffee, dark chocolate, star anise, mild dry pitted fruit, wood and hickory-smoked bacon. The viscosity and richness of the palate is unbelievable! Flavours of rich coffee, dark cherry, vanilla, molasses, port, baking cocoa, and hickory smoke and wood. Hints of herbal mint tea and sweet soy sauce in the flavour, but in no way do this take away from the overall flavour profile. The finish brings about a bitterness that either came from the roasted malt, or possibly whatever amount of hops they used, I’m really not sure. There’s definitely a brighter, more citric flavour in the finish that accompanies the smoke and applewood bacon. This brings new meaning to ’full-bodied’ and this monster drinks like syrup, drying the palate and caking the lips and gums like no other. Palate duration...come on! I could taste this the next morning. The hype is real. This is truly incredible.

Great thanks to Drink4Satan for sharing this with me. 2007, Silver Wax. Pours syrupy BLACK! Tiny little dark brown head but that dissipates extremely fast. Aromas of Star Anise, smoked malts (Oh my god, so much smokiness), almost Rauchbeer like. Hickory smoked bacon and espresso. This is an Imperial Stout. I was pretty excited to tear this apart but I don’t think it is possible! Dark Chocolate, a ton of molasses, dark cherries, vanilla extract, soy sauce, and so much roasted coffee beans. Coffee and hop bitterness. This leaves a dirty film all the way down the glass, as if I left this glass sitting for a couple days! Mouth feel is syrupy and chewy. As a matter of fact, I finished this a few minutes ago and I still have the full taste left over. Lingering woody notes and sweet cherries are quite pleasant; with a coffee bitterness that nearly overpowers all else. This stuff was the description of opaque. A single drop absorbs the light but does not let it pass through. Very impressive and I may have ruined my taste buds. It will not be easy to top this brew, My hat is off to Three Floyds.

Thanks to David Noble for sharing this with me--Poured an insanely abysmal midnight black body with a rich tan-gray head. Nose of impenetrable gooey chocolate and coffee. Thick like molasses, offering wave upon wave of flavors such as vanilla, dark fruits, toffee, burnt sugars, and semi-sweet cherries. Hard to put into words how bombastic this monster was. What a trip!