Indigo Dog Black Lager (2010 Beer Week Collaboration With Thirsty Dog)
Indigo Imp Brewery

Almost black with a tight tan head. Lost a lot of CO2 quickly.

Toffee, black malts, smoke, cocoa, and an insinuation of cinnamon stick.

Nice hefty malt bill full of big roast, cocoa nibs, and grain char, but with a delectable smoke note. Has some minerally qualities as if brewed with harder water. Finishes sweet. Alcohol wave rides through the palate. Grainy in the mouth which supports a bigger body; it might have added oatmeal. Carbonation isn't as tight after all. Chewy beer feel.

Nice example of the style. Not the cleanest, but solid.

12 oz bottle, 6.9% abv. Pours nearly jet black, hard to see any highlights at all. Fizzy tan head disappears immediately.

Milk chocolate, caramel, and some roasty notes. Very faint smoke. Age probably took it away.

Chocolate malt, with just a slight caramel edge. A bit astringent and dry. Still manages to be clean.

Lighter body, with a higher amount of carbonation. Alcohol is hidden well. Little to no smoke character, likely due to age. Not bad, would have loved to try fresh.

12 ounce bottle. Pours dark brown color with a delayed 2 finger dense tan head with incredible retention that reduces to a thin lacing cap that lingers. Aromas of chocolate, caramel, smoke, roasted malt, and a bit of cola. There are some decently strong aromas, but they are a little on the odd side. Taste of dark chocolate, roasted malt, smoke, caramel, coffee, and a small amount of dark fruit. A slight amount of bitterness shows up on the finish and lingers for a short period with roasted chocolate flavors. A bit of prickly carbonation felt as well. Medium body with a bit of a creamy feel. Great drinkability as well. No alcohol in the taste but a slight warming on the finish was noticed. Overall this is quite impressive stuff, glad I have another one of these in the collab 12 pack.

Isn't this more of a wannabe rauchbier? That's what I was hoping for when I opened the box and found 4 of these in it. And that's how I see it. It is totally missing the smell - way too week. But the taste is better balanced than the Germans'. And I wish there still were a drinkability rating here, because this one shines.

I've come to expect great beers from Thirsty Dog (even before I realized they were local) and they deliver. I was sad that my 12 pack assortment didn't have 6x2 in it but I am glad to have 4 of these to drink.

This is the second bottle I have tried out of the Cleveland 2010 Beer Week Collaboration 12 pack. I have not had many beers from Indigo Imp or Thirsty Dog and I feel bad because they are local breweries.

I poured the 12oz bottle into a snifter glass to see a deep black body. There was a white one inch head that disipated quickly with zero lacing on the glass.

The aroma hits you with coffee, chocolate and malts. The taste was just ok and didn't do much for me personally. After drinking so many heavy, strong stouts lately I have been spoiled by anything that has any hints of coffee and chocolate. The only other thing I noticed was I really couldn't pick up sort of smoke in the flavor as well. I thought it was going to be much more pronounced but I really didn't notice it at all.

At the same time I did enjoy drinking the beer. The mouthfeel was solid, a well balanced beer that had a creamy feel and went well with the carbination.

Overall it was a good beer but nothing special where I would try to find a few extra botles.

On tap at the Indigo Imp Cleveland Beer Week Kick-off Happy Hour. Served in a pint glass. This beer was was a collaboration with Thirsty Dog for the 2010 Cleveland Beer Week Collaboration 12 pack.

The beer looks nice in the glass - it is certainly a black beer, with a decent white film of a head and spotty lace. When held up the the light, notes of brown and red are witnessed.

The beer is roasty and expressive in the nose, but that slightly diminishes the clean, lager aspect of it. There's a ton of chocolate from the roast along with just a touch of smoke. Also, just a touch of vegetable (DMS?) which adds some confusion. But the roast dominates for the most part, and that's good!

The taste is interesting. The roasty chocolate and coffee flavors from the malt are exceptionally smooth and inviting. There's also a slight acrid note reminiscent of stale coffee. Some pleasant lingering flavors of roast and slight bitterness. The weird thing is just that this is a lagered beer but the powerful flavors make it difficult to tell how the lagering process did anything for this. Still pleasant nonetheless.

The mouthfeel is medium-bodied with creamy carb with just a touch of bite. The finish is roasted malt and some lingering mild bitterness. It's a good beer for sure, but a bit of an anomaly. If handed this blindly, I would have assumed it was an American Porter or an American Black Ale.