Dark Lord Imperial Stout - Three Floyds Brewing Co. & Brewpub

jrallen34

Illinois

2.7/5  rDev -37.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.75

2010 verision re-review. I had this at dld day but i was pretty hammered. I figured the Lost finale was a good time to break out a new one.

I drank this from the bottle into my Orval glass.

The beer pours a jet oil black, hardly any brown with a only a little light tan head. Disappointing a little.

The aroma and taste are super awesome and sweet. The malts show off tons of vanilla, but its so fine its not overly sweet it just shows off so perfectly. Light roasty coffee on the finish with a slight alcohol burn. Hides the 15% extremly well. Super easy to drink.

The 2010 is clearly superior to the 2009. Its really awesome, super easy to drink. New ratings are the 2010.

2009 white
I drank this from the bottle into a chalice.

It pours motor oil black with hardly any head at all. No carbonation very dark color.

The aroma is very strong of vanilla, coffee and cherries.

The taste is complex with a start of cherries, moves onto vanilla, and coffee.

The taste lingers for several seconds and for its abv its very drinkable.

2009 was 4.0, 4.5, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0.

Serving type: bottle

05-24-2010 00:36:59 | More by jrallen34

4thelvofbeer

Virginia

2.7/5  rDev -37.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 2

Updated December 2012 review: I like Dark Lord, when it is actually good. I have opened five bottles of 2012 Dark Lord and one, one bottle was good. The rest were apple bombs...tasted like eating, well drinking, a granny smith apple. Enough is enough...I had to modify my review...in the taste and the overall nastyness of this beer....yuck!

May 2012 review: WOW!!!! Whoa! this stuff is crazy good. Just opened my first bottle of 2012 DL, red wax top. I am going to drink and enjoy the entire bottle myself, all 22oz of it...lol. Will share other bottles with friends later, but I need to enjoy the entire 22oz to properly conduct and accurate rating and correct review of this beer. Poured into a Westmalle chalice at room temperature.

A: The pour is the brownest black there is. A small, dark brown head quickly forms and then just as fast vanishes and bubbles away. As I am pouring it into the glass, appears to swirl around with much more of a thickness, much more viscosity than water. Stays foamy around the edges with a nice brown rim.

S: Dominant with a coffee smell right off the nose with hints of oil, tar, molasses, figs and syrup (seriously not making this up...I got a full glass right here).

T: Thick, thick, thick! This has got to be one fo the thickest beers I have tasted. It is so rich it is actually going to be tough to polish off the bottle due to the richness of this beer. Probably a full days worth of calories, vitamins, minerals and spinach in here!!! Taste is sweet and smooth with absolutely no trace of alcohol or any kind of nasty aftertaste.

M: Again, thick, creamy and smooth; really rich and tasty.

O: One of the more complex stouts I have had. Very rich, lots of flavors, really nice complexity. Super stout. Really nice...

***Post tasting note: this is way to rich to drink a bottle by yourself...get a friend or two to enjoy with you!! I did finish the whole bottle...whew!

Serving type: bottle

05-11-2012 21:54:28 | More by 4thelvofbeer

jfunkk79

Massachusetts

2.68/5  rDev -38.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 1.5

The highly anticipated suckling of the lord commenced last night. '09 bottle enjoyed with some friends during a homebrew session. Good times and this was everyone's first taste of this highly sought after gem.

Pours a deep, black motor oil color. Swirling around the glass leaves a coating of what looks like the iodine sanitizer I use for brewing. Very minimal head in my Brooklyn snifter.

Smells outstanding. Full of chocolaty goodness with raisins and plum notes.

Hits the tongue with alcohol at first then the sweetness hits. Damn is this beer sweet. Some molasses in there with a little bit of caramel. Not what I was expecting at all. Frankly I was pretty disappointed. With the smell being as intense as it is I was expecting a little more complexity. Mouthfeel is as thick as it comes. Chewy and totally takes over your mouth.

All in all, I don't think this beer deserves the hype. I'll put some age on the other bottle I have and maybe my opinion will change.

Serving type: bottle

05-18-2009 18:52:14 | More by jfunkk79

Brew33

Ohio

2.68/5  rDev -38.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 2

2010 Dark Lord, Green wax. Thanks for the trade Erik. Insert really dark, thick stout cliche here for apperance. The aroma is odd, very sweet. No roasted character just sugar. The taste is more of the same. Just sickeningly sweet. No real depth of flavor or complexity. Molasses, raisins. Not really an RIS imo. The mouthfeel was good, above average for the style. The drinkability was poor because it's incredible thick with noticeable alcohol and kool aid sweetness.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why this beer has such a following and such a high rating. It's a mess. I'd rather drink soda than this. Not a good offering from a fantastic brewery HUGE disappointment.

Serving type: bottle

06-05-2010 13:22:00 | More by Brew33

Higravity

Michigan

2.65/5  rDev -38.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 1.5

First, many thanks to Mentor for this bottle in BIF20.

For such a hyped beer this sure was a let down. I could see all the interest and I have read the reviews, I've drooling for the past year, but this beer didn't meet up.

I served this beer at about 65F in a snifter and finished it in about an hour.

It is thick black with a real chocolate foam of a head that settles to lay on top of the beer mostly around the glass. The thin of the beer is brown and I knew I was in for a roasted malt treat.

The first smell was a bit choking as the CO2 was still escaping, but it concetrated to a roasted malty sugar and alcohol smell, the hops are present but muted, overall I really like the smell and when I am not sipping at the beer the snifter is under my nose.

Well . . . pow first sip is roasted bitterness with hop undertones that are nothing but bittering, no big flavors, it coats the mouth and the after taste is vinous and a little sherry like but more bitter. There is no creamyness and through just a few sips in this is really starting to taste really middle of the road and two dimensional, alcohol and heavily roasted malt. At the end of the bottle, the taste is really grating thin on my palate, it is not getting better, each sip is not savored and I can't wait to be done the beer. I have had better RIS's before.

Yeah this is a thick beer, but it really could use some smoothing out.

This is best to share with a friend after 22oz I don't think I could of taken another sip.

Serving type: bottle

06-01-2005 13:04:41 | More by Higravity

andrewinski1

Maine

2.65/5  rDev -38.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5

Poured into a tulip. 2010 vintage with the green wax. Pitch black with just a bit of head.

The aroma is chocolatey and a little soy saucy. This is almost a good aroma, there are good aromas in the aroma, but the soy sauce kind of ruins it.

The taste is sweet. The coffee is very subtle in the flavor. The aftertaste is particularly disappointing.

The body is thick and chewy. The carbonation is a little subtle.

This is a little disappointing to be honest, but it isn't super terrible. I would say it's mostly just disappointing because the market is saturated with delicious stouts.

Serving type: bottle

08-07-2011 01:44:06 | More by andrewinski1

pmarlowe

California

2.65/5  rDev -38.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

2011 vintage (yellow wax). Tulip glass. Thanks to seeswo for this.

A: Pours thin, very dark brown with a ring of tannish head. A few minutes in, the surface looks flat. No lacing.

S: Charred, roasted malt and vanilla, some cola and milk chocolate. Smells sweetish.

T: Super sweet, like drinking cola spiked with chocolate milk. Wow, this is way too sweet.

M: Full bodied and very light carbonation. So thick, like drinking straight up cream.

O: So sweet and thick, I can't finish more than a little. Ugh, truly gross. Drainpour.

Serving type: bottle

08-09-2012 04:35:52 | More by pmarlowe

marvin213

North Carolina

2.6/5  rDev -40%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

I can spot a few bubbles, but no head appears. How can a (white) waxed bottle offer no head on the pour? It pours thin, but the color is viscous motor oil. Other than being darker than most, it's fairly ordinary-looking. Under ordinary conditions, I'd rate a headless stout below par, but waxed, demonic marketing gets the best of us.

The nose is a dark fruit basket...almost like somebody smashed blackberries to make a new wine. Lacking hop presence and foam, it's cobbler without ice cream. Dark licorice makes it smell like candy. There's some dark cherries, raisins, dates (which I also associate with figs), and plums. It smells like a dark, fruity Twizzler.

The taste has a slight malty balance to the utter sweetness I smelled. Still, it's missing a creaminess or bitterness that would really make this a better beverage. If you count licorice as a fruit (and I'm not declaring it is), the only thing exempting this from candy status is an alcohol burn. I was nicer on the smell because fruity candies smell good, but this is not what I want from an RIS. Oddly enough, it's so sweetly puckering that it's almost like a sour. I know FFF is a great brewery and (maybe) this is ordinarily a great beer, but I prefer the taste of a grocery store stout compared to what currently sits in my snifter.

Though there's indisputably substance to this liquid, a relative flatness confirms my suspicions about the absence of froth--insufficient carbonation. It's so very dark, but with a diluted fruit, alcoholic warmth. I'll go with unimpressed on the feel but, with all the hoopla, rarity, marketing and, more objectively, the ratings on this site, I'm actually disappointed.

I want to try Dark Lord again (perhaps another vintage), but I'd be a fool to go whole-heartedly after it. An exclusive beer from such a great brewery that I don't even like--how does this happen? I'll finish it only because of these non-taste factors. I'll point out, however, that I actually drain-poured a small portion to eliminate glass contamination possibilities. Rarely do I drain-pour even a portion of ordinary brews, much less a brew like this.

Serving type: bottle

11-08-2009 19:17:46 | More by marvin213

alexipa

Colorado

2.6/5  rDev -40%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

2012 as a part of an Imperial Stout tasting. This was the unanimous last place beer.

A: Black. Little head that dissipates to nothing quickly.

S: Smells of sweet booze, some dark fruit notes in there as well. This was my favorite part of the experience.

T: As soon as I tasted this, I thought turkey gravy. It tasted like turkey meat had been marinating in the bottle for months. Once I got past this horrible taste, there was some decent complexity hidden in there.

M: Pretty good carbonation, the right amount of heat, nice and smooth.

O: If I had an entire bottle to myself, I would have drain poured this. I'm glad I didn't actively seek this out and it was treated as an extra at the otherwise fantastic tasting.

Serving type: bottle

08-10-2012 18:37:50 | More by alexipa

muttyd

Massachusetts

2.58/5  rDev -40.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

2010 Bottle poured into a giant tulip

A - Pitch black pour with a thin tan head that quickly fades. Great lacing and looks like oil.

S - Boozy, dark chocolate candy bar, ground espresso, and some salty soy sauce. Smells hot, hoping its not just a booze bomb.

T - Dark chocolate, roasted malts, prune/raisins, some smokey/wood flavors up front. Alcohol present in the form of a port/sherry sweetness. Little to no hop presence, completely masked by the sweet sugary malt profile.

M - Very viscus, chewy and sticky. Little carbonation helps this one dance around the tongue slightly. Long, sticky sweet finish. Alcohol warms on the way down.

D - This is one hot beer. I am not really opposed to drinking high ABV beers (I knew what I was getting into), but the alcohol makes this one a slow sipper.

Serving type: bottle

05-16-2010 01:19:35 | More by muttyd

youradhere

Arkansas

2.58/5  rDev -40.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

Had the 2010 at a south sound tasting. Reminded me more of barley wine then a RIS, almost sockeningly sweet with little roast character. I honestly don't know what the hype is all about-Abyss blows this beer away on all fronts. Medium caramel color leaves long legs in the glass, smells of dark fruits and tastes is dark fruits, dates, figs etc. Really sweet, if the body were any thicker this would be not very drinkable at all. I get more notes of vanilla and toffee, but mostly fruit. Again there is no roast character at all to this "RIS" and I am glad I didn't trade something good for it.

Serving type: bottle

05-31-2010 05:54:19 | More by youradhere

GhettoFabulous

California

2.5/5  rDev -42.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

I cracked a bomber of the 2009 vintage with some dear friends and made sure it was the first beer of the night in the name of palette cleanliness.

This poured a sludgy back into my tulip glass with a decent amount of lacing. It looks good as hell and it smells inviting, but a little bit ominously. The aroma emits so much different flavors you can tell this is either going to be amazing, or a big hot disharmonious mess.

The first taste reveals, indeed, a brew with a panoply of flavor. There is a wide variety of disparate elements that your tongue struggles to suss out - dark fruit, molasses, figs, your requisite malts, and wow, there are too many flavors to possibly figure out which direction this beer is going. Beers like this can be great when the different elements sing together, but this is not integrated very well at all. The only pervasive and unifying theme is sweetness, and dare I say, soy saucey kind of taste.

It was a struggle to make it through this glass, and I am a huge fan of dark, sludgy adventurous stouts. This was a big disappointment, and even if the wild array of flavors here was integrated well, I can't imagine it would be an above average stout for its class.

Serving type: bottle

05-05-2011 00:59:50 | More by GhettoFabulous

MrVonzipper

California

2.48/5  rDev -42.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

Dark Lord '12
Pours a cola brown. Black in glass with a short tan head.  Good retention and lacing. 

Nose is okay. Very sweet. Mild fruit but not necessarily dark fruit like most imperial stouts. 

Flavor=wow. Not that good! Huge let down. How is this on the top 100? Where is the Intelligentsia coffee. So overly sweet. Tastes like sweet dark sugarcane. I think I just got diabetes. 

Mouth is puckery sweet. Very Heavy and full bodied with low carbonation. It's like a mouth full of pennies made of sugar.

Overall I'm so disappointed by this. Had high hopes as a major stout lover. But this ended up being a drain pour. Pretty bad!

Serving type: bottle

05-19-2012 03:24:22 | More by MrVonzipper

InebriatedJoker

Ohio

2.45/5  rDev -43.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Shared this bottle with schwaeh - 2011 bottle Yellow Wax.

A: Poured a black as dark as the devils soul, one finger head that quickly desended into a thin frothy lacing, moderate carbonation.

S: There is alot going on in the smell on this one , Figs ,raisin.plums. burnt sugar,molasses,chocolate.

T: Holy sweet molasses cookies Batman, Plum pudding covered in chocolate,brown sugar, molasses, slight cherry , booze, pretty much everything and the kitchen sink with added sugar in this. I think I need to check my blood sugar now.

O: Maybe I just don't get this beer but I was rather dishearten by the end result, The beer is so sweet and I struggled to finish a single tulip of it, It attacks you tongue with so much sugar and molasses that it's really hard to enjoy it, I read the reviews and let the hype get the best of me and traded two solid beers for two of these, I doubt I'll be so eager to seek anymore out in the future.

Serving type: bottle

07-03-2011 14:52:33 | More by InebriatedJoker

jokemon

Illinois

2.45/5  rDev -43.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

This review is based off of the 2012 bottles across multiple samplings.

The beer pours a dark "black-hole" black into the glass. Very minimal carbonation with almost no head. However, you can notice some carbonation rising in the glass. Also, tilting the glass i notice that this beer is thick! and will coat the glass with a sugary film.

Smell is... of sugary molasses soy sauce. Not the best smelling beer around. Unfortunately the taste closely resembles the smell. It is extremely difficult to drink this beer as it does taste like soy sauce, raisins and sugar. This beer is extremely sweet! it makes it very hard to drink and I wish it was balanced more in flavor.

I heard this was a bad year for dark lord and there were potentially some contaminated batches. I'm not sure if I got one but I have to say I would not recommend this beer. Bourbon county stout, FW parabola are far better beers.

Serving type: bottle

09-29-2012 22:52:17 | More by jokemon

DovaliHops

California

2.43/5  rDev -43.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

2009 Vintage...I have been waiting for a long time to try this beer. Pours a VERY THICK, motor-oil black with minimal-to-no head. Scent is VERY VERY sweet...with some off-putting soy sauce aromas. I also pick up some lovely chocolate and brandy aromas, along with molasses and dark malt. Slight vanilla. Taste is...WOW...disappointing to say the least. Overly sweet...a ton of sugar, burnt sugar and malt. Lots of toffee with candied dark fruits and more sweetness. Slight soy sauce flavor. Mouthfeel is very thick, like motor oil, and hardly any carbonation. Drinkability is fair...but can only have a small serving of this. Overall, this was not nearly as good as I was hoping for. It's not too often that I go against the hype, but this was just not a good beer IMO. The sweetness is overpowering and just makes for a bad experience. Will definitely not be trading for any more of this.

Serving type: bottle

02-15-2012 06:52:00 | More by DovaliHops

bitterbeerguy

Minnesota

2.43/5  rDev -43.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

I just came back from vacation and had to post a review of this brew. I have been looking forward to it for the past 6 months, saved it for a great weekend, and wow was I disappointed.

Vintage 2011 (yellow wax)

Brew pours a beautiful color- midnight with some off-white foam. I was surprised how quickly the brew condensed down to just the beer though- bubbles were gone! I guess that 15% was clear from the beginning!

Aroma is a very nice- marshmallow fluff meets coffee and caramel, plus some oaky tones. Really nice smell on this brew.

Taste was awful. It was likely drinking a bottle of soy sauce. I thought maybe it was too cold, so we let it sit for a little while. Still tasted like soy. Then changed glasses, still tasted like soy. Finally, we had to pour it out. Also felt like it was not nearly as dense as expected, especially in flavor profile.

Maybe it was the youth of the beer (about a year), maybe it was just a bad bottle, or maybe this just isn't my brew. All I can say is there is NOTHING from Three Floyds that has gotten below a 4.5 overall rating from me so far, but Dark Lord did.

Serving type: bottle

03-26-2012 02:42:51 | More by bitterbeerguy

Agold

Pennsylvania

2.4/5  rDev -44.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5

Was really lucky to get a pour of this from esentman 2011 vintage. Poured like a great impy stout. Dark and viscous, but even a vigorous pour did not yield a head. The aroma was pleasant. Caramel sweet coffee and a pleasant roasty fullness. The flavor was a huge mess. Under attenuated and extrememy sickly sweet. Everything that was in the nose, plus some dark fruity flavors, was lost behind a curtain of sweetness. It was not the easiest beer to get down. Full mouthfeel that would be nice if not for the cloying sweetness. Thick and full bodied. I have heard better things about older vintages, but was really unimpressed with this one. Kind of disappointing. I really wanted to like this one.

Serving type: bottle

05-04-2011 05:37:28 | More by Agold

antoines15

Indiana

2.4/5  rDev -44.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

2011 bottle shared with J Bird and SB. Pours dark and thick and looks pretty good at this point. Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. The smell doesn't really bring anything of note to the table. Taste is obnoxiously sweet, no coffee flavors at all, no flavor of any kind, just a sugary sweetness. Mouthfeel is thick, not too sticky, but the sweetness is all I can think about. Overall I was not impressed with this version. I liked it on tap at the release party but it has only gotten worse from there. I'm not sure if this is legal but I poured out about half of my glass. The Cardinals just hit a walk-off home-run to take game 6. OMG, what a game!

Serving type: bottle

10-28-2011 04:42:27 | More by antoines15

WillCarrera

Illinois

2.33/5  rDev -46.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5

8 oz pour, had this on-tap at DLD 2012, finally got around to reviewing this from notes.

A- Pours pitch black, very thick looking, produces no head at all, just an ominous pool of black.

S- Incredibly sweet aroma, molasses and caramel/toffee, some dark fruit and some booze, the aroma is nice but the sweetness is already concerning.

T- Jesus. Sweetness is unbelievable and highly cloying. All I'm getting is a mouth full of sugar. There are flavors beneath it, I'm getting molasses, caramel, fruit, some roast, coffee and booze, but in order to find them you have to first penetrate beneath this incredibly powerful sugar. The first thing I said after drinking it was "does it need to be this sweet?"

M- Full-bodied, massively thick, sticky, chewy feel, these are great attributes on their own, but in this beer the thickness and lingering sugar actually become pretty unpleasant in combination.

O- A huge disappointment, I had heard great things about this beer and was really looking forward to it, but what an under-attenuated, cloying nightmare this turned out to be. I struggled through an 8-oz pour. People actually like this beer?

Serving type: on-tap

07-01-2012 23:20:26 | More by WillCarrera

kevinv

Virginia

2.3/5  rDev -46.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

2010 vintage poured into a pint glass.

Appearance:
Looks like motor oil. It pours a thick, oily, viscous pitch black. As you pour, it looks and even sounds very syrupy. The dark brown head dissipated quickly. Was only about a 1/2 finger at the max.

Smell:
Lots and lots of dark fruits. Strong on the molasses, brown sugar. Mild bourbon and chocolate scents. Very strong on the alcohol. This smells over the top sweet.

Taste/Mouthfeel:
Dark fruits (raisins??), molasses, chocolate. Holy ****, why is this so sweet? Not appealing at all. It's almost undrinkable. Pretty much zero carbonation and the thickness feels like sludge in your mouth which leaves a disgusting coating. You almost have to chew this beer to get it down. Feels like somebody poured syrup into my mouth.

Drinkability:
Very low drinkability. I'm pretty sure that I'm in the minority here, but this beer was bad. Really bad. Luckily, I split this with a friend, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have poured the other half of the bottle out. This beer is definitely a sipper.

I had really high expectations going into this one and was excited to try it after seeking it out, but I was hugely disappointed. I think I want to try this one again at some point - maybe a different vintage - but this one was a letdown for me.

Serving type: bottle

01-17-2011 21:09:22 | More by kevinv

drewmprs

California

2.28/5  rDev -47.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Vintage 2008

I've had this beer a couple times fresh and have never been impressed. Way too thick and oily. There's also an overpowering dark chocolate flavor that takes over the faint cherry tones. This beer definitely needs a couple years to age. I haven't had the chance to taste one more than 2 years old so I might revise this rating in the near future.

Serving type: bottle

08-08-2009 20:16:00 | More by drewmprs

calise1122

New York

2.25/5  rDev -48%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

2009 Bottle

And so it began...

Three men, on a journey... one, really stinky... two cameras, both broken,... what happens next:

White wax top, drips down the side of the neck in a way that would make Taylor Rain look like an alter girl.... and yes, its 2009 and we have alter girls.

And yet, with a innocent white wax cover hovering over the top of the beer... the two other fellas in the room are talking about alter boys, sex, porn stars dancing, and possibly prostitution... and finally, the cap is popped and a nearly invisible cloud of mist follows Chris's hand back to his lap... oh dark lord, this bottle is talking to us.

A: tobacco spit, jet fuel, darkness....

Oh shit, I just spilt dark lord on the floor and I am getting some stares... but gregc just legitimately crapped his pants and we are getting nervous.

..A continued: quick carbonation fades to nearly nothing, but yet has frappe/milkshake sort of viscosity to it.

S: Glue, making one of our friends gag, smells like soy sauce, very salty... sort of fishy, with a ton of cocoa, vanilla, car paint, nail polish... not sure we all like it. It is very pungent, but not in necessarily a good way... in a C+ kind of way. Hmmm...

T: Hot, burnt my mouth, like drinking acid. Charcoaly, but in a bad way.. like when your steak is cooked over kerosene lit fire... seems artificial smokey mess.

M: Thin, watery, droopy, kind of like "pancake titties". 3 grown men pretty disappointed. This beer is putting one of us to sleep... to sleep. Are you kidding me. Urgh

D: Rather not

Serving type: bottle

08-01-2009 06:24:11 | More by calise1122

Ryan011235

Ohio

2.25/5  rDev -48%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2

Poured into a snifter on 4/12/10; shared with two friends

2009 vintage

The color is a very dark scorched crimson brown, which appears jet black once settled in the glass. I honestly don't know as that I'd liken it to motor oil. Is it dense, thick & viscous? Yeah, man. But motor oil? The pour resulted in hardly any head. Despite a few intense swirls conjuring the most minute layer of film, there is nothing in terms of retention. Of course it follows that there is no lacing.

The aroma is pretty good. Dark fruits & burnt malts are notable. Notes of prunes, plum, raisins & currants, though the latter is a little less apparent than the others. Molasses, caramel, brown sugar overtones. Something in there is akin to tobacco - maybe dip spit. Hints of sweet dark chocolate. This smells very sweet; maybe too much so. Some alcohol heat is apparent as well.

Upfront, I think the taste is rather good. It is a complex culmination of burnt malts, potent dark fruits & sugars. Smooth & sweet milk chocolate blends with hits of roasted coffee. My enjoyment of the taste starts to wane during the middle when a much-too-potent sweetness becomes apparent. It just turns into a sticky sweet mess, in my opinion. The problem seems to stem from the beer trying to do too much at once. On the one hand are the burnt aspects, on the other, the sweet aspects - either of which would be passable were the other scaled down. Couple that tobacco harshness & I think it's just too much. This sentiment is only intensified by a weird numbing medicinal quality that manifests toward the end. Meh.

For the most part I can't fault the mouthfeel. The body is full with reasonable viscosity. Carbonation is appropriately very low. Lingering on the finish are notes of burnt tobacco & alcohol. Unfortunately the numbing quality detracts from the overall feel. Other than that the mouthfeel is quite good.

While I didn't find Dark Lord "all it's cracked up to be," I would not be opposed to trying it again. I would actually like to try it fresh to see if the harsher nature of the beer overshadows the sweetness as I presume it might. As it stands, this beer is still suspect in my opinion. I will certainly update & adjust accordingly if I have a different experience.

Serving type: bottle

04-27-2010 23:17:06 | More by Ryan011235

Danimal25

Illinois

2.25/5  rDev -48%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Opened a bottle of 2013 Dark Lord last night. I have to say, it was a grand disappointment. After pouring in a tulip glass, I gave it whiff and was caught off guard by the interesting, funky nose on the beer. The flavor, however, was far worse. Overwhelmingly sweet, bland, and metallic. There are minimal tasting notes here, as it literally tasted like sugar, metal, roasted barley, and cardboard.

May have had a bad bottle - will update I find different results with other bottles.

Serving type: bottle

05-12-2013 14:26:20 | More by Danimal25