Now for those who don't really know much about Indigo Imp, I'll let Jennie do the history lesson on them, as I'm excited to try my first fall beer of the year. This pours a dark orangey/amber color with a decent amount of off white head. This is hazy and opaque, which is typical of a bottle conditioned beer. The aroma on this is interesting. There's a belgian-like yeast strain blended with faint pumpkin pie spices and some dank, almost sour characteristics. The flavor on this though makes up for the dank nose. Ignore the dank nose! There's some sweet potato up front, the flavor does a 180 to almost a sour beer that builds to almost being too much, then it flips again and rounds out on some nice nutmeg, cinnamon. Oh wait, now it's less sour in the middle and brings out more toffee, caramel and spices. Damn. The third sip is even different. There's something interesting about this ever changing/evolving flavor profile. Not your typical pumpkin/autumn beer, not your typical sour/open fermented beer. There's some creaminess to the mouthfeel with a slight puckering residue left over.
I continue sipping this transformer of beers while passing the torch onto my partner in crime. Rather pleasant, I know a few people who would really enjoy this.
4.5/5 caps
-Nathan-
It sounds like I'm up against the Optimus Prime of beers here. I'm intrigued... but since Nathan put the onus of the Indigo Imp history lesson on me, I'll address that first. Indigo Imp is based out of Cleveland, is a family operation with very limited tasting room hours, and can be hard to find as they self-distribute. All of their brews are Real Ales, which means that they are naturally carbonated. Indigo Imp's beers are also unfiltered and not pasteurized. They open ferment in shallow, open tanks, so there can be variations in flavor from batch to batch from the wild yeast that is floating in the brewery. They also only brew seven barrels at a time, which is a very small capacity. I know homebrewers who have almost that much capacity.
So, let's get on to the beer. This is a medium orange color with some off-white head that is still atop my glass. The aroma on this is interesting... it's not as dank as the whiff I sneaked from the bottle. It's soft citrus with some caramel and an almost sour note. Let's take a sip. Nathan described it well, with the sweet potato up front, and then the sour punch kicks in. I have yet to pick up on any pumpkin pie spices. The second sip was almost fully sour. This is very indicative of Indigo Imp's beers, coming from the open fermentation. Yep, all I am getting from this is lemon up front, then softening out to a dry finish, and all the sour notes in the middle. I'm not getting much more out of this. There is the creamy mouthfeel that I find in every Indigo Imp beer I've had.
I'm not as thrilled with this as Nathan. It's ok... I don't love it nearly as much as I do their Blonde Bombshell, which I find to be nearly revolutionary in flavor profile. This is actually one of my less favorite beers from Indigo Imp. I'm not picking up on any of the fall spices that are alleged to be in here. The sweet potato addition is hit-or-miss in the flavor, and it's just overpowered by the notes from the open fermentation. The label also indicates that it has some toasted marshmallow notes; that is so different from my experience that I am sitting here with a very confused look on my face. Candidly, I'd rather have Firebrand (an amber) or Fiend (a red rye ale), two ales they produce that are quite tasty.
3.9/5 caps
-Jennie
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