Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

Well it took years to finally sample one of these, and a huge thanks to JMFG for bringing this to the throwdown. 2007. Very dark, shows just a little red at the edges. Super rich roasty , chocolate and coffee nose. Bigger chocolate flavors. Really really smooth and everything merges into a unified whole, so its very well balanced and exceptionally drinkable. Some molasses sweetness emerges but its still very balanced leading into the shockingly semi-dry finish, where there are touches of tannins to give a long lingering huskiness.

2005 issue: Not-quite-opaque molasses brown. Sandy, finely-bubbled mocha foam. Alluring nose of rich java, mocha chocolate, and molasses. Lightly yeasty and vaporously alcoholic, as well, with glazed pecan, burnt toffee, and vanilla hints. Rush of velvety-soft carbonation fills the palate. Lip-sealing mixture of chocolate fudge and molasses quell the cheek-buckling alcohol. Intensity is off the charts, but there’s loads of char, sharply-vinous fruitiness, and alcohol to assist the initially-overt richness. Takes on more graininess as alcohol couples with the firm roastiness to slowly pierce the wall of viscosity. Brief soft coffee bean and cinnamon flavor gracefully collide with the delicate underbelly of assorted berries and ink. Closes with a sizeable black malt/burnt cookie bite backed with a flash of arid roast and rich java. There’s nothing terribly unique about this (with the exception of the interesting yeast character), but it certainly is a huge improvement upon last year’s [bottled] version, which was less lush and overly viscous in the mouth. Much like Expedition right out the gate, it’s rough around the edges, albeit highly delicious, when fresh, but like Expedition, this will become more magical with each passing moment in the cellar..

2005 Bottle. Deep black in colour with a think lasting brown coloured head. The aroma was of dark chocolate malts, deep roast, chocolate pudding, brown sugar but a dominating sweetness. The flavour was of dark chocolate, very rich and complex, some noticable alcohol, roasty but still very sweet. Chewy, thick mouthfeel, huge body, high carbonation. Finishes with a very long roasty bitterness. Extremely sweet, I am eager to try the 2004 version and re-rate accordingly.

Hmmmm. I’m a bit torn on this beer. Notes first, then the torn part. Pours blacker than used motor oil with a small thick head that is dark burnt orange / brown. The aroma has big sweet molasseses, vanilla and dark chocolate. The body is thick as sludge with very little carbonation. The taste starts out with lots of dark dried fruits, bitter roasted malt, vanilla beans, dark bitter chocolate and honey. The finish has lots of harsh hoppiness and very bitter chocolate. There are a lot of things going on here - very big bold flavors. I am giving this high marks because it accomplished what it set out to do - over the top beer, over the top flavors and excessive in everything. However, the excessiveness seems to hide many real ’beer’ traits. This is sludge with many interesting flavors, but far from something I could enjoy very often at all. It seems like excess for the sake of being able to do it. While FFF succeeded in what they wanted to do I’ll take a Old Rasputin or Brooklyn Black Chocolate stout over this more times than not.