Day 8 of the Advent-ure Calendar

Day 8: Fat Head’s Brewery Pimp My Sleigh

Fat Head’s is a favorite local brewery among Clevelanders. They have a huge brew pub, an amazing tasting room inside their production facility, and you can find most of their product line in any store that carries craft beer. They excel at intricately crafting each one of their beers to perfection, as evidenced by their numerous national and international awards. If it’s an IPA, its going to be hoppy, but you’ll pick up the fruity and herbal notes within the bitterness. If it’s a fruity beer, you’re going to taste fresh fruit, but it will be balanced among the hops and malts and yeast. Fat Heads knows flavor.   Holly Jolly is Fat Head’s staple Christmas ale and this year, Pimp My Sleigh joins the lineup as their Belgian Style Christmas Ale.  According to Fat Head’s website, expect “intricate aromas and flavors of sweet dark malt, dark fruit, raisins, figs, anise and spicy phenols.”

REFLECTIONS

Beard & Broad
Beard: I don’t recall ever having a bad beer from Fat Heads.  This is no exception.  In an area (and world?) where it seems every Christmas beer had a spice cabinet dumped into it, Fat Heads goes against the grain (pun!) and releases a Belgian Strong Dark that derives all of its delicious amazing holiday goodness from its base ingredients.  Both on the nose and in the first sip I immediately get stone fruit, and subtle spice notes.  It finishes slightly sweet, full bodied, and still a touch dry.  At 10.5%, I merely get a slight alcohol warmth that is perfect for the frigidly offensive Cleveland winters.  This is my perfect Christmas beer.

Broad: Amazing.  Fat Heads does it again! This is by far the best beer we’ve tried.  As stated before I enjoy Christmas ales and I love Belgian beers.  This tastes exactly how I would want a Belgian holiday ale to taste.  To put it simply, it smells and tastes like Christmas.  I taste dark delicious fruit, holiday spice, and the perfect amount of malt. This is one of the first high-alcohol beers I want to drink a lot of.  I’m excited to add this beer to my Christmas beer rotation.

Adam & Alex
Adam: Pimp my sleigh is what I believe you would describe as a “big” beer. Big AF. It’s outstanding. I get the boozy warmth that comes with a 10% Belgian dark ale. I get lots of fruit like figs, plum, apricot and maybe some Cherries. This is the best beer we’ve had so far and it’s not close. This screams “get bombed while watching Christmas vacation with me.” And we plan to later in the season.

Alex: I LOVE this one, and it’s definitely my favorite thus far. It’s a delicious Belgian beer that definitely has a kick to it. It makes me feel warm and cozy like a Christmas beer should!

Mez & Sam
Mez:I’d like to think that after a long night of delivering presents, this is the beer Santa grabs to wind down. Smooth flavor for a 10+% beer that gives you a warm feeling and keeps urging you to take the next sip. A flavor that contains a combination of tastes that all work together, this is a top flight brew.

Sam: Eh. Its syrup-y to me. Not the worst beer. Definitely tastes like 10.5%. This is a beer I would get blacked out drunk on.

Special thanks to our crazy little elf, Riggins for being a good sport and model for us!