{"id":9905,"date":"2025-01-04T23:34:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T05:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=9905"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T19:12:25","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2024-11-fat-orange-cat-winter-warmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/9905\/12-beers-of-christmas-2024-11-fat-orange-cat-winter-warmer","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2024 \u2013 11: Fat Orange Cat Winter Warmer"},"content":{"rendered":"\"foc<\/a>\n

I was hesitant about this winter warmer since I\u2019d never heard of the Fat Orange Cat brewery and wasn\u2019t able to find out much about it, as it no longer has a working website. That made me a little suspicious.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s applied with a subtle touch in any case. It\u2019s a potent brew at 7% ABV, but not overwhelming; it actually goes down a little too easily. And after a good gulp there\u2019s a teeth-tingling after bite.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s cans (all the fanciful labels by Leslie Herman<\/a> of Richmond, Virginia, who has also done some work for Vermont\u2019s favorite sons, Phish).<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Facebook postings.<\/p>\n\"FOC<\/a>\n

Once opened, and once FOC Baby Kittens hazy IPA appeared, things went a little wild with the crowds swarming the couple\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Fat Orange Cat brewing on a larger scale is now being done at Twelve Percent Beer Project<\/a> in East Haven, Connecticut, a sort of brewery collective that partners with breweries to brew and distribute the beers to 42 different states. (There\u2019s a long article about the Twelve Percent Beer Project by Courtney Iseman on Good Beer Hunting<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I also picked up a can of the brewery\u2019s Santa Claws, a 9.1% Imperial Stout With Cinnamon Buns, but I\u2019ve had my limit for the day. (And I also have one can of Santa\u2019s Black Blood from the Abomination Brewing Co., also distributed by Twelve Percent, but I haven\u2019t had the nerve to drink it\u2014a 13.1% so-called Double Pastry Stout, brewed with vanilla beans, milk sugar and eggnog spices.)<\/p>\n\"FOC<\/a>\n

I could leave it at that, but I\u2019m also chagrined to say I somehow completely missed a 2023 collaboration between FOC and Vermont\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"foc<\/a>Name: Winter Warmer
\nBrewer: Fat Orange Cat Brew Co., North Haven, Connecticut
\nStyle: Spiced Winter Warmer
\nABV: 7%
\nAvailability: Seasonally, potentially in the 42 different states that Twelve Percent Beer Project distributes to.
\nFor More Information: fatorangecatbrewco on Instagram<\/p>\n

[January 4, 2024]<\/em><\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 10: Zero Gravity Bear Snores On<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 12: Two Weeks Notice Christmas Tree Graveyard<\/a> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was hesitant about this winter warmer since I\u2019d never heard of the Fat Orange Cat brewery and wasn\u2019t able… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":9907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[975741,1045918,210761,1045919,1002722,1045920,1029947,1045921,1030105,1045922,1030106,1045913,633,1045914,749,1045915,554,1045916,676069,1045917],"class_list":["post-9905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-12-days-of-christmas","tag-good-beer-hunting","tag-winter-warmer","tag-santa-claws","tag-12-beers-of-christmas","tag-santas-black-blood","tag-von-trapp-brewing","tag-abomination-brewing-co","tag-twelve-percent-beer-project","tag-whiskers-on-kittens","tag-north-haven","tag-leslie-herman","tag-vermont","tag-east-hampton","tag-christmas","tag-fat-orange-cat","tag-connecticut","tag-mike-klucznik","tag-christmas-beers","tag-sheila-mullen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/01\/foc-can.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9905"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9923,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions\/9923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}