Three Floyds: Keyrock (Rye Barrel Aged Dark Lord) (USA: Imperial Stout: 15% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown, with a thin brown rim a of a head and a brown viscous sheen where the beer has been.
Nose: Marzipan. Rye bread. Molasses. Caramel. Coffee. Toffee.
Body: Thick treacle. Raisins. Plums. Tobacco. Rye whiskey. Marzipan. Sultanas to fruitcake. Toasted teacakes. Banana bread. Sherry.
Finish: Plums. Coffee. Sherry. Tobacco. Blueberry. Cocoa dust. Toasted teacakes. Molasses
Conclusion: Holy shit. Back in the day I tried standard Dark Lord, back when it was a “mere” 13% abv rather than the 15% monster it became shortly after. I remember finding it very good, but not quite as good as its quite frankly incredible and over the top reputation. Now over a decade later I get to try this rye aged, 15% abv version of Dark Lord and, holy shit, it is exactly as good as its reputation. It is amazing.
This has the huge body of Dark Lord, the huge viscosity and sweetness, and definitely the molasses sweetness shows through, but now with a lovely spiciness that works here amongst such a big beer where it adds rather than dominates the experience. Even more than that the dark fruit notes seem so much more pronounced – with plums and fruitcake that seem so much more evident and makes for a chewy and rewarding character that shows so much more depth than I remember.
There is that fruitcake, with marzipan sweetness and more layered into it. Then as time goes on coffee notes softly come out along with bready toasted teacake style that gives a real stodgy, chewy weight to the beer – more than just a the viscous weight it had early on.
Then, of course, there is the barrel aging influence, this is super spirity under all those heavy flavours, with lots of showy notes. It makes it feel almost like a spirit stout, with so much of those spirit characteristics while not losing the base beer in it. It really pushes the limits of the style and is so impressive.
A fantastic beer, if you are lucky enough to get the chance I would say it is a must try,
Background: So, after breaking open Cable Car, our kind American visitor to the Moor taproom at Zwanze day was not done yet! He then only went and broke open this bad boy to share and I cannot thank him enough. A rye barrel aged version of the legendary three Floyds Dark Lord! Like, Dark Lord is hard enough to get hold of, this is a treat indeed. Again the smaller measure is my choice, as the host was more than happy to pour more! Back when I managed to try Dark Lord before, it was the standard version and back when it had a slightly lower abv of 13%. I very much enjoyed it, not as much as its incredibly high reputation but I did enjoy it. This, rye barrel aged is one of only 1,500 bottles for that release, and as always with Three Floyds beers has some amazing art work on the bottle. I was quite a few beers deep by the time this was broken open but there was no way I was not doing notes on this beast, so I did my best to do decent notes on it.