Dark Lord - De Muerte MMXXII
3 Floyds Brewing Co.

 

Look - black and thick with slight lacing
Smell and taste - sweet pepper chocolate and barrel with a slight spice
Feel - full body with a lighter carb
Overall - not bad

Pours an inky jet black and settles in the glass onyx black with a sizzling mocha head that is gone in seconds. Gorgeous BA imperial stout.

The nose is led by big bourbon aromas, and the guajillo peppers are well represented, with the Mexican vanilla and Indian sugar present as well.

The bourbon is likewise forward on the taste, but the guajillo peppers steal the show, providing some head and a nice flavor to balance the sweetness of the Mexican vanilla and Indian sugar. Magnificent.

The mouthfeel is rich and creamy, as expected with this beer. This variant checks all the boxes for me, and one I’d gladly try again.

Massive, spicy, savory and strong, the 2022 bourbon barrel-aged Dark Lord stout that boasts guajillo chili pepper addition is alive with all the spicy flavors in a mellow, dessert and boozy sipping session.

Dark Lord de Muerte pours a syrupy blacked-bronze and tawny-eged hue. Decorated with coffee and spices, the appearance is nearly opaque except at its far margins. Faint on foam, the ale simmers like a dark roast coffee with its peppy secrets inside. Heavy on molasses, dark fruit, fudge and oaken whisky, the scent is decadent with dessert-like liquors.

Once on the tongue, the ale slathers with booze laden sugars over each and every tastebud. Light on carbonation, the beer's sweetness saturates the soft tissues of the mouth with unabashed apology. Chocolate, maple, molasses and toffee seem like caramelized cake batter but with the grilled fruit flavors of blackcurrant, red grape, prune, date and fig before turing leathery and pleasantly tobacco-like. The spice of bourbon balances the sweetness and shies away from cloying taste and textures. The spices of chili peppers simmers softly in the background and is careful not to overpower the alcohol or boldly savory flavors created by malt and barrel.

Lavishly full, thick and whole heartedly viscous, the beer's texture is akin to used motor oil. As the ale clings to the mouth, its dessert character chases into a long, sweet and savory finish that lingers long with simmering chili warmth. Like a fine after dinner digestive, this ale is cause of special and specific celebrations.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Had Oct 15, 2022

This one pours a very dark and semi-syrupy looking black, with a very small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells like caramel, dark fruit, creamy coffee, oaky spice, bourbon, milk chocolate, and just a hint of peppery spice.

The guajillo peppers here are very faint, very subtle. The spice coming off the peppers sort of dovetails into the oaky spice from the barrel, making this just feel like a particularly oaky barrel aged sweet stout. It’s quite sweet, as Dark Lord variants tend to be, but the barrel and pepper does help curtail that a touch. There’s milk chocolate, some light berry fruitiness, caramel, and lots of coffee.

This is medium bodied, pretty thick, lightly syrupy, with a lower level of carbonation.

I didn’t really know what to expect here – I think the pepper heat was appropriately dialed down. This was enjoyable, but mid-tier for Dark Lord variants.

 

 

 

 

 

Tasted from bottle. 2017 version. Pours Black with beige head. Aroma of cocoa, lot of pepper, some sweet molasses. Surprisingly not overpowering pepper which was nice. You get the vanilla, cocoa, bourbon, caramel and toffee as well. Very nice variant.

 

2017 green wax vintage

Shiny black with a fuzzy, swirling mocha film and thick collar.

I'm getting loads of green pepper with a chipotle pepper roast and stinging heat that really kicks up on the way down. I also taste a savory SpaghettiOs flavor that's just as weird as that sounds.

I've heard all kinds of praise for Muerte, so I came into this with moderate expectations of something like Mexican Cake or Oro Negro. But the pepper takes full control and it's neither a mole-inspired Stout, nor is it even a minimal semblance of its base.

This review was originally based off of a short pour of the black waxed 2016 vintage, but I've since opened my 2017 green wax bottle mid November 2018 and unfortunately find very little of note to change about it. A beer that brings all the subtly of chipotle in adobo sauce is a tough nut to swallow. Luckily I had about 10 other lucky souls to split this with!

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On 11/19/2022 I cracked my yellow and blue waxed 2022 bottle and to my surprise enjoyed it far more than previous iterations, which I'd given a a grand total score of 2.77.

An uncharacteristically zippy carbonation now lifts sweeter, fruitier pepper notes, as opposed to the weirdly savory, chipotle-in-adobo-style SpaghettiOs of years past. It's kind of like raspberry chocolate with just a bare scosche of spicy heat. In that regard, I kind of wish there was more now (lol), but I must admit, it's a better beer now than ever before, thus the huge bump in score.

 

 

 

Some heat at the back end. Delicious.