Indigo Imp Gatekeeper

Brewed by Indigo Imp
Style: Porter
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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Bottle: Pours a mostly opaque with a creamy froth of beige head. Has a semi-sweet roasty dark chocolate nose with a touch of light fruits. Starts with average fullness for the style and a light doughy sweetness with some toasted caramel malts before a thinner slightly nutty finish and lingering roast. Needs a little more fullness and complexity, but is fairly drinkable.

12 oz. bottle. Pours dark brown in color with a thin beige film that disappears quickly. The aroma has some roasted malts, a touch of caramel and some off notes. I’m not certain of the age on this beer but that may be a factor. The flavor has some dark maltiness, a touch of roast, but also has a slight acidity and thin mouth feel. This is probably a bit past its prime and I may revisit again.

UPDATED: MAY 11, 2012 [*EDIT* THIS is the reason I keep trying new beers. It is everything I hope for when I open a new bottle. Absolutely brilliant.]My first Indigo Imp beer, bottle in a mixed six from the grocery store. Pours a very dark brown, tiny tan head disappears quickly. Light lacing left on glass, fairly low carbonation. Nice roasty/toasty and coffee notes, perhaps a hint of chocolate and some sort of nuts, but nothing really dominant that I can pick out. Aftertaste is chocolatey coffee, and delightful. The low sweetness is nice, as I don’t like overly sweet porters. This is a very, very tasty bottle-conditioned concoction. I will definitely see what else Indigo Imp has to offer. Seems like another fine brewery doing things right here in the Cleveland and Akron area.

Bottle given by Rock. Poured a dark brown color with an average frothy light brown head that mostly lasted with fair lacing. Moderate toasted chocolate malt and vanilla aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium toasted chocolate sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. Solid brew.

Poured from a bottle into a shaker. Appearance is dark brown with a thin head of brown foam that dissipates quickly. Aroma is light on the chocolate, but I get a lot of vanilla bean and coffee. Taste is smooth coffee, vanilla, and nuts. I don’t know why this beer has such a low score. I think its wonderful.

Bottle from a trade with jmikolich. Pours dark brown color with tan head. Roasted malt aroma with some cocoa. Ashy, roasted malt flavor with some sweet cocoa. Medium body with soft carbonation. Thanks Jim.

12oz bottle from rozis aroma is malty and mildly roasty but taste is soft and mild with only a hint of roast on the exhale

Pours dark almost black with anice tan head that hangs around. Smell: Milk chocolate, coffee, and whipped cream. Nice creamy chocolate some burnt coffee beans and caramel. Medium on the palate and the finish is chocolate, caramel with coffee roasted bitterness.

Chocolate, burnt crisp biscuit, roast malts and a sour, wild tang. Really different and pretty good. Finish is a little metallic. Good, rich brown head that dissapeared readily (reminded me of pouring soda actually) and little to no lacing.

So I guess this brewer’s trademark is that they use open fermentation to allow the beers to get a bit of a wild character. This explains why the beer in my bottle seems very much different than the beer described here by others. It also explains why my beer was a bit of a gusher. Oh well, the beer I got is really quite good so I don’t mind. To begin w/, it is really a nice looking porter, very dark w/ a thick head of velvety fine bubbles. This is about as good as it gets as far as looks and normally bottles that gush look like crap. This is a chocolatey rich beer w/ a velvety texture. It’s rather dry and any sweetness is easily balanced by bitterness and a hint of tartness. If you’ve ever read Guinness’s literature on their stout, they say they leave some percentage of beer to go sour and blend it back in to give it some tang. I have never tasted this character in Guinness but this beer has a character something like that and it really adds a lot. It’s not a sour beer or a wild beer at all but there is a touch--just a touch--of rustic complexity underneath the surface of what would otherwise be a fairly standard American porter. It makes for a beer w/ both depth and easy drinkability and that is a rare thing indeed. It is too bad that it seems like most batches of this are overly sour or otherwise bad. I found this to be a really wonderful beer and if on my next time through Ohio, I pick up a sixer of this that turns out to be bad I will be sorely dissapointed.

This poured a medium brown color with a beige head. Aroma was sour milk and old chocolate. No this was the not the sour version, the person informed me. Flavor was funnky garbage and light roasted notes, all while being watery at the same time. Everything i’ve had from this brewery has been terrible