Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout

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

From the bottle (one of a few), enjoyed at the Dark Lord Release Party, Three Floyds. (And a round of applause to Nick Floyd and the other 3F folk for handling the massive RateBeerian invasion so well!) Over hyped? Too extreme? How about... this is a great beer. It pours out black with a substantial brown head that does some fun lacing as you drink. (Of course, it got more fun the more DL that I drank.) The aroma is rich with coffee and sweet malts and roasted malts and molasses with traces of licorice and vanilla and alcohol and a brief hit of the hops... and it got more complex as it warmed. This demonic stout is huge with malt, subtle on the coffee, big on a well-melded mixture of flavors. The finish is bittersweet, both in the dry aftertaste and in the realization that you’ve just emptied the glass. (Forunately, there is still more to be had!) An excellent vintage.

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Yes, I am being impatient. Initial pour is near black and oily. Look a lot like used oil from a diesel engine. Small but dense head of dark tan bubbles. Smooth and silky feel. Rich malt, fresh hops, and alcohol all sneak out of the lair. I pour the remaining sludge into a separate glass. Dark brown soup. Heavy aromas of fresh picked hops. Try this and it is mostly hops and yeast flavors with a late hops bite. Mix the two to create a murky brown substance with some specks of white yeast. Cream soup feel. Malt dominates with mild chocolate, and light fruit. late hops and alcohol burn. Chewy beyond any other brew that I can remember. This is not beer it is a malt shake. My lips are stuck together. I can hardily wait to try my other bottle in about 5 year. This should be absolutely fantastic by then. Kudos to DavidP for dropping this one off.

Dusseldorf Gathering, Bottled. Yes, this is it! Strong aroma of sweet coffee and moccha. Black, brown head, good lace. Sweet, loads of moccha and licorice, roasted but light bitter. Thick and cloying like motor oil. What a brew! Thank you Saarlander. Re-rate: 2008 vintage, 4.4.

Rating #1000:
Opaque muddy black color, oily with tan carbonation & mohogany colored head with no lacing. The bottom 1/3 of the bottle is thick, compacted sediment, the top; liquid luxury. The aroma is...wow! Robust is an understatement! Alcohol, muskat grapes, brown sugar, molasses, maple sugar, sour cherries, vanilla, underlying coffee & roast. Strawberry jelly, some soy sauce, macadamian nuts, honey, sage, teriyaki, light tannins and tons of sweetness. The flavor is very balanced (surprisingly) with a bit of alcohol and a roasty chewiness like raisins and fig mixed with expresso mocha, buckwheat AND fresh hops like a crispy IPA. Finish is very mild for an Imperial Stout of this stature. Smooth but of course the massive body and creamy texture. The tail is oily and full with a note similar to whoppers. Lingering long enough to savor completely. Many thanks to Mike the BBB for this holy (or unholy?) bottle of the lord. Many more thanks to all of you fellow ratebeer people I've talked to and to this site in general for awakening me to quality beer. Here I stand at the peak of my achievments so far and realize how far I've come. Me and the dark lord, hand in hand. Into the land of four digits I come, be warned!

Bottle, at RBSG Grand Tasting, July 2006. I’d been sitting on a rating of Dark Lord done mainly from the sludge at the bottom of the bottle for a couple of years and had been looking for an opportunity to rate it properly since. And now I find myself at a late stage of the tasting, sitting with almost full bottles of Dark Lord, Speedway Stout and Apis Jadwiga Mead in front of me that nobody is clamouring for. Beer tasting can be tough but someone’s gotta do it. There’s not really any point in trying to add too much to waht others have said about this beer. Its a huge beast. Inky black. Imbued with chocolate, coffee, burnt malt and deep, rich fruit. There’s also a strong hop presence that makes it perhaps a teensy weensy bit harsh. And the alcohol did give me a bit of an afterburn. But these are minor quibbles. I do have to say that I marginally preferred the Speedway Stout that I sampled at the same time but I couldn’t really articulate too clearly why.

I was luck and got two bottles at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. Black hue with small dark brown head. Aroma was a complex heavy combo of molasses, chocolate and coffee. Full creamy body. Flavor was as complex of heavy sweet and a long solid finish. Clearly has earned this high rating and I am looking forward to bottle two.

Bottle, vintage 2007. Pours a black color with a small tan head. Has a roasted malty dark chocolate molasses and coffee aroma. Roasted malty oily molasses and dark chocolate flavor with hints of dark fruit and coffee. Has a roasted heavy malty molasses finish with hints of chocolate in the aftertaste.

Bottled at Chris_O Fest March 2007. First of all repeated thanks to Kevin for sending this to me unsolicited. A very generous act. I’d volunteer to kill your enemies but i know you can do that yourself. It would have been easy to open this earlier in the proceddings but discretion enabled it to last well into the afternoon. A black beer with a smaller than expected beige head. A very thick beer which leaves great notes on the side of the glass, and a treacle thick deposit on draining. The aroma is full and malty. LIcquorice and soy are to the fore, but no real roast or coffee notes. The taste is very thick and full bodied. Again more soy and licquorice notes than other stout characters. Fantastic alcohol notes. Very smooth and mellow. Tasty for sure, but it could be better.