The Potable Pioneer: 3 Floyds Dark Lord brew

The craft beer renaissance in America has pioneered some marvels in brewing ingenuity, expanding our palates and our minds and challenging the limits of where beer can go, and what it can do.

Some sudsy examples, however, have managed to gain such massive cult followings that getting your hands on a bottle has become nearly impossible, much to the chagrin of devoted craft beer aficionados and curious newcomers alike.

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, an imperial stout brewed with chocolate and coffee and aged in bourbon barrels for a year in caves underneath the city of Grand Rapids, spawns a line over 1,000 people strong that starts over 4 hours before the brewery doors open.

Another example, and the one we will discuss, is a stout so potent and alluring that it has its very own festival dedicated to it, and this demonic creation is known as Dark Lord.

The 3 Floyds Brewery was started by three gentlemen (Sam, Nick, and Mike Floyd, hence the name) in the sleepy town of Hammond, Indiana in 1996. In the year 2000, the brewery moved operations to Munster, Indiana and a brewpub was soon to follow nearby.

This ambitious brewery is known for their wildly creative beers and churns out around 20,000 barrels annually. They offer 8 year-round staples, and then several seasonal offerings, one of which is the Russian Imperial Stout Dark Lord.

3 Floyds Dark Lord is bottled at a jaw-dropping 15% ABV and is brewed with Intelligentsia coffee, vanilla, and molasses. It’s label design artwork and brightly colored dripping wax is enough to make for a stunning presentation. Interestingly enough, each year’s release boasts a different color of wax over the top of the bottle; for example, 2010 was green, 2011 was yellow, and 2012 was red.

It is available only at the brewery one day out of the year, making it highly coveted and nearly impossible to get your hands on (there are other ways to get your hands on a bottle, but they are becoming fewer and farther between).

The festival, Dark Lord Day, is held at the brewery on the last Saturday of April every year, and has drawn such a large and raucous crowd since its beginning in 2004 that tickets have had to be limited to only 6,000.

Apparently, the drunken revelry and celebrating is of biblical proportions (anyone who has been can attest to that). Attendees are also invited to participate in a raffle with a chance to buy several bottled variations of the stout, one of which is Dark Lord aged in legendary Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels.

So, if Satan were to sit back and crack the cap on a brew, this would be the one. Sticky, dark grainy flavors combined with prunes, vanilla, and deep-roasted molasses cascade over the palate and linger on in the finish, making this a unique brew and one that is definitely an experience in and of itself…just don’t forget your red pitchfork.