Indigo Imp Belgian Style Saison

Brewed by Indigo Imp
Style: Saison
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Serve in Tulip

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12oz bottle thanks to Ryan011235. Clear golden color with a small fading white head. The aroma has white wine, cider, pilsner malt, spice, and stone fruits. Not too saison-like, but fine. The flavor is a bit odd. A lot like a cheap white wine mixed with a cider and a helles lager. Underripe fruits, estery, with a slight yeasty kick. A bit too alcoholic-tasting for less than 7%. Medium-bodied and somewhat astringent with medium carbonation level. Not very good for the style, but tolerable at least.

Bottled. Poured clear, bright golden with a short, dense white head. The aroma picked up sour lemon zest and oak over fairly nondescript and lightly-honeyed malts.. smelled like it was going to be refreshing. The flavor opened with expected tangy lemon zest and oak.. bready and honey malts at the core.. dry and earthy on the back-end.. didn’t come across quite as well as the nose indicated, but no real complaints. Light-medium bodied, sour, and refreshing on the palate.. a little grainy on the back-end.. overall a solid drinker.

First let me say that this is not one of my favorite styles. It was in a sampler pack, so I will rate it. The pour is golden with a constant stream of small bubbles and a small ring of white bubbles for a head. The aroma is syrupy sweet perfumey. The beer is almost medium bodied, the sweet and perfume are not as bold in the flavor as aroma. The finish is a almost wheat crisp. An ok beer, Probably one of the better of this style... Still not my favorite.

Bottle @ home, courtesy of Brigadier. Very cloudy yellow orange appearance with a small white head. Very yeasty, banana, orange citrusy Belgian ale nose. Tangy, orange citrusy, yeasty, very sweet, messy Belgian ale flavor.

My bottle said ’spring’ on it. Lots of fine yeast on the bottom of the bottle. Gentle pour reveals a slightly hazy pale yellow and it gets more cloudy near the bottom. Funky aroma, like dry fruit wine of sorts. Taste is farmy, almost like watered down dry apple cider. Rather laid back and there is no sign of high alky as the 7% would indicate on this site, more like 4%! Fun easy slightly dull hopped, just barely. Unique and one of the better saisons I’ve had. Mild medium low finsh. Not quite as good as JP bam nor silly, but very good.

A slight malt aroma, with just a touch of spice. Pours a hazy yellow amber, with just a dusting of head. The predominant flavor I get from this is lemon, with a little bit of spice in the back end. This beer has a much heavier mouthfeel then I would expect from a Saison beer. It’s drinkable, but that’s about it.

12 oz bottle
The second in the 2011 sampler pack from Indigo Imp was more what I expect from them based on past performance. A Belgian style saison that trips over itself and becomes too one dimensional is the end result. Maybe with time the bottle conditioning can turn it around. For now it is a mess that has no focus or ambition.

Aroma / Appearance - The transparent hazy body was messy and confused. Clean with a white head it looks typical but bland. Hay, earth, and an overwhelming bone dry character eats away at the senses. It reminds me a little bit of a lemon glazed sugar cookie that has gone stale. Too light for a saison it needs more depth or something to be meaningful.

Flavor / Palate - Musky wet hay dried in sunshine, lemonade without any sugar, and a yeasty bite are a mess. It tastes like someone blended the two styles rather than starting out with a goal in mind. The chalky finish is a little bit like lemonade poured over a dirty classroom chalkboard and then poured into a bottle. By correcting a few flaws this could put Indigo Imp a little higher on the ranks of regional breweries. For now they sit with the likes of Cornerstone and Rocky River.