I was hesitant about this winter warmer since I’d never heard of the Fat Orange Cat brewery and wasn’t able to find out much about it, as it no longer has a working website. That made me a little suspicious.
But I was able to piece a few things together, and then I was more than pleasantly surprised by the beer: a solid effort, an almost opaque brown ale, as rich as it is dark, with a copious tan head. There are aromas of chocolate malt and raisin, a touch of molasses and clove, and the dark fruit note, chocolate and cinnamon in the palate. There are no hints as to what the spicing is, but it’s applied with a subtle touch in any case. It’s a potent brew at 7% ABV, but not overwhelming; it actually goes down a little too easily. And after a good gulp there’s a teeth-tingling after bite.
What little I did find out was that there was a fat orange cat named Billy beloved by Mike Klucznik and his wife, Sheila Mullen. Hence both the name of the brewery and all the cat-inspired beer names and car-festooned artwork on the brewery’s cans (all the fanciful labels by Leslie Herman of Richmond, Virginia, who has also done some work for Vermont’s favorite sons, Phish).
Mike was one of those homebrewers unbound, with scores of recipes and batches. For almost a year before the couple opened Fat Orange Cat in 2016 as a small farmhouse brewery in East Hampton, Connecticut, they were basically giving free tastings to friends and fans who had accumulated through Sheila’s Facebook postings.
Once opened, and once FOC Baby Kittens hazy IPA appeared, things went a little wild with the crowds swarming the couple’s small property. Providentially, perhaps, COVID came along, and the East Hampton location was eventually shut down for tastings, but where pilot brewery appears to be continuing.
Fat Orange Cat brewing on a larger scale is now being done at Twelve Percent Beer Project in East Haven, Connecticut, a sort of brewery collective that partners with breweries to brew and distribute the beers to 42 different states. (There’s a long article about the Twelve Percent Beer Project by Courtney Iseman on Good Beer Hunting.)
I also picked up a can of the brewery’s Santa Claws, a 9.1% Imperial Stout With Cinnamon Buns, but I’ve had my limit for the day. (And I also have one can of Santa’s Black Blood from the Abomination Brewing Co., also distributed by Twelve Percent, but I haven’t had the nerve to drink it—a 13.1% so-called Double Pastry Stout, brewed with vanilla beans, milk sugar and eggnog spices.)
I could leave it at that, but I’m also chagrined to say I somehow completely missed a 2023 collaboration between FOC and Vermont’s von Trapp Brewing, Whiskers on Kittens. It was a 5% Gose-style ale, with another Herman label showing a Maria-like cat character dancing in cat-like mountains. No doubt to the sound of, well, to the sound of beer being musically poured into a glass.
Name: Winter Warmer
Brewer: Fat Orange Cat Brew Co., North Haven, Connecticut
Style: Spiced Winter Warmer
ABV: 7%
Availability: Seasonally, potentially in the 42 different states that Twelve Percent Beer Project distributes to.
For More Information: fatorangecatbrewco on Instagram
[January 4, 2024]
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