Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays - OK, a little late for that but I still have a few Xmas Beers stored away in the beer fridge.  Time to start getting through them before it gets to late.  So, this beer was a gift from the owner of Fat Head's himself - Glenn Benigni.  I was lucky enough to meet him through a friend of mine and avid beer drinker of a newer brew crew of guys.  We get together on occasions to socialize, brew, cook, eat, and of course drink beers.  We always have a great time and good stories to be had.  My friend has known Glenn for some time and was nice enough to introduce me and my wife to him at lunch over my Christmas break.  I have nothing but nice things to say about Glenn; seemed well grounded, had a lot of great stories in the 45 minutes we hung out and generally seemed to care about his customers.  We talked about the new brewery Fat Heads is opening.  He is extremely excited on this venture and had nothing but great things to say about his master brewer.  I can also tell you that WAY BEFORE I ever thought I would get to meet the owner of Fat Heads (10 years ago when I moved to Pittsburgh), I found this brew pub in South Side of Pittsburgh.  I INSTANTLY fell in love with this bar.  If I'm not mistaken they didn't even have their own brew at that time.  It was just a pub of FINE BEER and INCREDIBLY tasty bar food that is EXTREME.  Don't believe me check out their FatHeads Pittsburgh website and menu.

Already a paragraph in and no beer review.  Well, as I said, there is a story to every beer.  Tonight's story is a war story of parenting.  This will definitely be a challenge to get through all 366 days; I just didn't realize the hurdles would would be this early on the track.  This beer was opened at dinner time.  Shortly after a decent meal made by my lovely wife, I sat down to have a few sips of this brew to evaluate.  I definitely got 6-8oz of beer down and then the challenges came.  The challenges of cleaning the kitchen, getting the children to listen, to help clean up and stop fighting, get them bathed/dressed and ready for bed without pulling my hair out (or theirs with the brushing and hair drying, and shampooing - silly girl hair :) haha ).  Basically, most of my parenting 'career' has been a constant check on myself as to what happened/what is happening/what will happen and most importantly how can I improve for the future in parenting.  Also, hoping that my parenting style will of course create a well rounded intelligently strong adult capable of tackling the world with their own bare hands.

Our girls our 6 and 3 and are the most beautiful wonderful happy girls I have ever had the pleasure of spending any time with ever.  This makes those goals above a constant factor in my head that I doubt from day to day.  I count my blessings every day and every night that I am surrounded by the love of such a wonderful family.  As the quote goes, nothing worth having is ever easy.  Parenting is hard.  Its a never ending challenge of educating, pleasing, disciplining, rewarding, crying, smiling, laughing, all in one day.  And then wake up the next morning and do it all over again.  In the end, we just try to lay down at night - pray to god (and/or whatever your belief may be) that we are doing a good job.  Because, its a never ending struggle that is COMPLETELY worth it in the end.

So, that said, Glenn - I apologize I can't give a fair review on this brew!  And I'm sad that I didn't get to enjoy it a bit more then I did.  I did finish this beer a bit later after the troops settled in and the brew sat around and warmed to room temperature.  What I can tell you was that I will definitely be looking to have it again as it did taste solid.  I tasted a nice honey sweetness to it.  The Christmas spices were definitely present but in a very smooth fashion that is not overbearing.  It pours a nice clear red'sh brown color.  Also, the warming of this beer did not in any way hinder the taste of this beer.  It was as good - if not actually a bit smoother and maybe a bit 'bourbon like' at room temp.  Over all very very pleasant beer... just wish the night was a bit more calm and nice to really get to enjoy this beer as it was intended.

NOTE:  As stated above - this beer was a gift from the owner so please take that into consideration.  I am definitely trying to be as unbiased in my review(s) as possible.  And I want to thank Glenn again for the free sample.



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