Beer Review: Fat Heads Bumble Berry

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.3 percent

Appearance: This Fatheads concoction pours an awesome shade of gold. It highly resembles clover honey and had just a touch of visible haze. The body featured a prominent crown of shiny white head. The bubbles appeared tight-knit and compact. It was similar to wet snow. It was fluffy yet firm and left ample lacing inside of my glass.

Smell: The aroma of this brew was very bready and crackery. I also noticed some sweet honey behind it. There was both some tartness and sweetness from the blueberries albeit a bit nonchalant. I didn't pick up much hop character either, but I don't usually expect to get much in fruit beers.

Taste: The sweetness hit me up front as it usually does. That was mostly with the honey. The blueberry was sweet on the front and translated into slight tartness as it made its way towards the finish. On the finish, everything was very crisp. The tart from the blueberry combined nicely with the crackery/crusty taste on the finish. That enabled just a tad of zing at the end.

Overall Rating: 

This beer was awesome. I also recently had a glass of it on draft while at Fat Heads on the South Side. Surprisingly, the bartenders put a small handful of actual blueberries in it. It was fantastic! I'd love to one day have a case of this beer, but the ones I've found are in the $40 range. Still, I'm leaning towards grabbing one for myself in the near future.

Beer Review: Fat Heads Gudenhoppy Pils

Serving Type: Draft

ABV: Five percent

Appearance: Gudenhoppy Pils is a pretty shade of straw gold. It's not as clear as most pilsners, but it provides the eye with a decent haze within the body. There isn't much visible carbonation, but there' s a somewhat thick, white head atop the brew.

Smell: This beer's aroma consisted of plenty of bready and biscuity malts. There's also a burst of hop aroma that fills up your nostrils. In my opinion, the hops tend to be more dominant that what I prefer in a beer of this style.

Taste: The dominant hop aroma translates to the flavor as well. The hop flavor is a tad obnoxious. The biscuit flavor on the finish translates to the taste fairly well and adds an extra bit of floral sweetness to balance everything out.

Overall Rating: 

A really decent pilsner. The hop character is a little strong for my tastes. Many might like that type of flavor, though. The floral sweetness adds an interesting nook in this beer's flavor.

Lost Beers: Fat Head's Autumn Sunset

In the latter parts of 2011, an evening spent on Carson Street introduced me to one of the most intriguing brews I've ever had. It was a glass of amazing liquid that set itself far apart from other beers of its style. It was a hefeweizen, but it was far from a typical edition of the infamous hazy brew.

Autumn Sunset or "Rot Weizen" as it is to referred to at Fat Head's Saloon didn't taste nor look like your regular hefeweizen, but it made me wish every other beer of the style was made in accordance with this one.

Ironically, I'm the last person to check into this beer on Untappd.

I distinctly remember getting my witbier glass full of the lovely concoction and looking at what looked like a glass full of the Monongahela River just a few blocks away, but with some remnants of a reddish glow. The taste was amazing. It featured hints of wheat, banana and bubble gum. It was even a bit peppery on the back of the tongue, which I love in a beer.

From what I can find, this beer was only a limited-time brew. The time I came across it was one of its few times on tap. I can't find any trace of it on the Fat Head's website. It's of my opinion that one of the worst experiences a beer fan can go through is really enjoying a beer and not realize it's a limited-release until you're desperately on a mission to relocate it once more.

If anyone from Fat Head's Pittsburgh sees this, here is my plea to you to brew Autumn Sunset once more. The Lost Beer's series is young and blooming, but this is certainly the first beer that has been realized as a limited-release brew.

Yes, I'm one of only two people to check into "Autumn Sunset" as well as the last on Untappd, but there are approximately three or four different versions of the same beer from Fat Heads to select from on the app. Still figured it was comical.

Beer Review: Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA

Serving Type: Draft

ABV: 7.5 percent

Appearance: Head Hunter doesn't look that different from the Caveman Keller Bier that I reviewed last week, in terms of color. It's an attractive shade of gold. The head is very thin and this beer doesn't appear to have much carbonation.

Smell: There is a lot of citrus in the aroma of this IPA. Orange, grapefruit and lemon flutter around in your nose. Behind the citrus is the scent of hops and pine.

Taste: The taste is what I'd expect from an IPA. I got hoppiness on the front and the citrus to balance it out on the back. I've never had an IPA that featured so much citrus flavor, which earns you bonus points from someone like me that loves citrus fruits.

Overall Rating:    

This beer was very tasty. As I keep saying, the Fat Head's house brews are some of the best local craft beers in all of Pittsburgh. Yesterday, Head Hunter IPA was named the winner of the National IPA Championships, beating other IPA's such as Saranac White IPA and Ithaca Flower Power IPA.

Beer Review: Fat Head's Caveman Keller Bier

Serving Type: Draft

ABV: 5.7 percent

Appearance: Caveman Keller has a fantastic dark shade of gold once it's poured. There is some uniqueness in the beer's body as the head seems to have a plethora of carbonation bubbles, but you don't notice that characteristic many brews have with the bubbles rising through up through it. The head is very bubbly and white. Will lace the glass as more is consumed.

Smell: This beer has a sharp, malty aroma. A slight, sweet aroma sneaks into your nostrils right before you pull your nose away.

Taste: The malts have a nice kick to them. The beer taste somewhat sharp on the back after some honey taste marinates your tongue on the front.

Overall Rating:    

I haven't ever been disappointed with a beer brewed by Fat Head's. This was the first beer I've tried of the Keller/Cellar style and found it to be interesting.

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The Beer Snob Visits Fat Head's Saloon

Other than The Library for the draft and wing specials, the other joint I've frequented the most on Carson Street is Fat Head's Saloon. This place has one of the more numerous and one of the most diverse beer selections (42 brews on-tap at a time) of any bar or pub in the South Side.

When you step up to the bar, you have to make your selection from one of the more creative tap lists in the Pittsburgh area. It's pretty unique and informative. Not only is each beer named on the board, it's style, alcohol-by-volume and its native state are right alongside it to clear up any questions you might have. Each time I've came into Fat Head's, I've also found the beer lists easily accessible. There are many at the bar and appear to be on each table. This comes in handy for people that want to know exactly what they're drinking.

The atmosphere is pretty relaxing. The outside is brick as well as the inside and this gives Fat Head's plenty of character. The brick walls inside have assorted artworks strewn about and make it seem that you're hanging out in a street alley.

If you decide to hang out in the bar area you can see the 42 beers on tap. The wall behind the tap handles appears to be stainless steel. As for the actual bar, its grey color compliments the metal behind the taps and blends the entire area together. One of the more relaxing and aesthetically-pleasing pubs I've come across.

Don't forget that Fat Head's also has a cask system, in which it usually features one beer at a time. From time to time there are assorted wines on the hand pumps as well. The beer selection is fantastic. I've never visited and not found something I didn't want to try. If you're curious as for what to look for, Fat Heads always has brewed some of their own beers and usually features some on tap.

Head Hunter IPA (7.4 percent ABV) and Caveman Keller Bier (5.7 percent ABV) were the only two tapped for this visit. Both were very good brews. I can honestly say that from all of the house brews I've tried, I haven't been disappointed a single time. Keep an eye out for what's on tap.

Fat Head's is arguably more famous for its food. The most notable thing on the menu is the South Side Slopes sandwich which features kielbasa, fried pierogies, onions and horseradish sauce. I didn't get a chance to try it during this trip, but its definitely something on my bucket list. I'm sure it's a lot better than the disappointing pulled pork and fried pierogie sandwich at PNC Park was.

Since Beer Snob Sr. made the trip too, we decided that we couldn't go wrong with the usual delicacy of a bar hopper: chicken wings. My aforementioned friend went with the homemade Fat Head's sauce, which is a regular hot sauce, but with some sweet undertones.

I chose an odd flavor for wing sauce: jalapeno cheddar. It just jumped out at me. I couldn't refuse it. It was one of the oddest, but most intriguing experiences I've had with a chicken wing. The jalapenos added a hot flavor that was pretty damn near perfect. It's not too often that you come across a texture in a wing sauce like this was.

As I said earlier, this place is one of my favorites on the South Side. Always a great brew selection, great and aesthetic atmosphere and some awesome grub. I was able to try four new beers while on this visit. I've mentioned two of them. I plan on reviewing those and the two others in good time.

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