I'm curious to know if 3 Floyds is actually run by three guys named Floyd, but I'm not so curious as to look it up. Indeed, the idea of doing research about these beers on someone else's website (even the breweries) is abhorrent to my very nature. I have every now and then needed to resort to that kind of thing to fill in an ABV or something that they didn't put on the label, but I try to avoid undue influence.
The black beer is slightly ruby at the edges, but it's black as midnight through the center. I know I barely caught the remaining sunlight with this picture - it's not that the beer is sucking up ambient light. There's really no head, even with an aggressive pour. The aroma is heavy alcohol over cherries. So, this is exactly what I expected so far.First sip is a very heavy, alcohol-laden imperial stout with cherries added. The sweetness of a milk stout seems to be completely absent while the barrel aging is fortified and then some. The prodigious 13.5% ABV is showing up hard, and it is all but running the show. That said, the wood tempers it quite a bit, and there may be a lingering chocolate after the beer is gone from the mouth. I need to dig deeper into this.
Tip-in is very light carbonation tingle over sweet cherries, wood, and vanilla. The middle opens into a wonderous sweet mix of cherries, wood, significant alcohol, light vanilla, earth, and bananas. The finish is set adrift with sweet cocoa and cherries on top of the wooden barrels of bourbon before sweet cherries make their home in the trail off.
Bottom Line: Sweet and imposing. It might be too much for most people.
3.5/5