Fat Head's Brewery & Tap House

Good food, great beer and good beer hall vibe make this a must visit for beer lovers. They offer a good amount of handles plus the occasional visitor handle or two. The gift shop has plenty of merch for fans and you can take beer home in cans, growlers or crowlers. Food is good, not typical bar food. Pay attention to specials for fun tasty treats. Service can be slow when it gets crowded, but servers are friendly but busy.

 

What a place, modern and Sturdy…huge brewery…with an equally huge taproom. Outdoor eating/drinking space, for when the weather cooperates. Merch store, plenty of their own on tap and cans o‘plenty to take with you to go … worthy spot for all your FH beer needs and hearty fare if you are hungry.

Fine place with a group as they are set up for crowds. Outside of Cleveland location

Fat Head's has overall my favorite beers. Pick any style of their many and FH is among the best I've tasted. However, the venue itself in Middleburg Heights is big, open, loud, and sterile. Nary a feeling of coziness. The TVs seem to be an afterthought - up high and out of the way) and while I normally don't care, the group of us were there to watch a ball game. The food we had was decent, nothing to go far out of your way for - but you should be willing to go far, far out of your way for their excellent beers!

 

This is a large production facility in an industrial park, with a huge taproom/restaurant and a gift shop. If I counted correctly, they had 21 beers on tap, along with a few seltzers and ciders. The beers were fresh and delicious. The service is quick and enthusiastic. I did not try their food. They have an innovative self-guided tour of the brewery that you can see by walking along a corridor off of the taproom. There are giant windows into the production area, along with signs explaining the brewing process. I've never seen anything like this and it would be very informative for those who know nothing about brewing.
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I visited this location in December 2022 under unfortunate circumstances, but that actually showed me the true character of the owners and staff and I can't say enough about their kindness and humanity. I have a family member who works here and who tragically lost her husband to unexpected natural causes. Bill W. and the rest of the Fat Head's team were incredibly gracious. They opened their brewery to us for a celebration of life/social after the memorial service, and they provided complimentary beer and catered food for the event. Nothing could have made up for what my family was going through, but Fat Head's did what they could and what few other employers would have even considered. I will never forget their kindness.

 

My initial 2015 review below was for their production facility before the rebuild and overhaul. It's an entirely different beast now. After increasing their brewing capacity, they also greatly upgraded and enhanced the customer service area. However, this also brought with it some of the less attractive aspects of their Saloon. I've stayed away in order to wait out the crush of re-opening hype, but after landing back home at CLE and disembarking from a fully masked plane, I couldn't help but try to take the edge off and check out the new digs, especially considering how short of a drive it is from the airport.

I'll just say it: the service is shit. However, I'm not entirely sure it's the waitstaff's fault. The customer service area is entirely too big, and they simply can not handle serving this many people. Even after all this time to figure out how best to serve the space, it's clearly way too spread out to provide even passable table service. I honestly can't believe it remains so busy with such inaccessibly shoddy service, but such are our options in Northeast Ohio.

What's even worse, though? Their god damned house made potato chips are no where to be found anymore! What an absolute travesty. All sarcasm aside, I really do prefer those over fries, but at least the rest of the food is still gut-bustingly delicious, particularly the smoked wings with house rub.

I have zero complaints about the world class beer, of course. And the facility itself, which offers a self-guided tour with views of the production area, is quite impressive otherwise.

Still, I can't abide the poor service, and have to drop my original 3.95 score substantially. As I read my old review, I find myself preferring the Canton location over all others now. It's too bad the Portland location got shut down by those snooty hipsters, because that could have trumped them all. If only it was built like that here.

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This production facility and tasting room is a separate, lesser known location away from the kid-infested "Saloon." Come here for a more chill atmosphere and a unique experience under the "clouds" in a very strangely arranged, publicly open brewery.

Since my first visit they seem to have really expanded the food menu greatly, and have as similarly a large taplist as their Saloon location, with 3 TVs for those sports nuts. I no longer see any reason to pass this place up in favor of the North Olmstead location. The Tap House is far superior in every way for the beer geek.

 

 

Great menu and good selection of beer. West Coast-style IPA Is my favorite beer here.

I recently visited Fathead's Brewery and Taphouse outside Cleveland, Ohio, to try some of their brews and have a late dinner. It's their new place and it is huge. They have a very long counter, lots of tables, a gift shop that's open until midnight, a self guided tour of the brewery that you can take any time including after midnight. We took the tour and it was impressive. In the gift shop I bought a hat, beer opener, and a shirt. The beer offerings and the food offerings were extensive. I had their sausage platter with sauerkraut but between us we tasted a lot of different food. Our waitress was helpful and friendly and funny and the prices reasonable. Overall this brewery was a very pleasant experience.

In town for the marriage of 2 great friends. I've had Fat Head's beers before, and visited the location in Pittsburgh. Being a half mile from the hotel, I headed over for lunch, and for a late night snack 12 hours later.
Head Hunter was top of the heap a decade ago, and still solid. Same with Hop Juju. All of the beers I tried were decent. The food was really solid, but not a big fan of the house made chips. The poutine I had later in the night was really good, the nachos not so much.
Service was good overall on both visits.
If you are in town, check them out. Good vibe, solid brews, good service.

Really a big space. Somewhat like a big chain restaurant in a big mall.
The food was good.
But the beer was really excellent! Some of the best IPA's I've had.

visited on june 25th

Vibe- granted we went on a sunday as soon as they opened but it was cool. the colorful walls with the stainless steel tanks in the background play off each other. laid back. all are welcome.

Quality- the beer was really good and the food was more meh....

Service- our original server was alright but jaymie (spelling??) should get a raise.

Selection- pretty solid line up. food was limited.

Food- this was the most negative thing about the place. I ordered a pizza with sausage, black olives, and onions. there was hardly any sauce. they make a homemade sausage with hops which i'm a fan of both tho it didn't taste all that good. the wife got taco's which she enjoyed. pizza was dry as sh#t. they said their kitchen is limited with appliances.

Overall- I got a flight (which is four) there with and extra. I ordered almost all ipa's. head hunter, bone head, Benjamin danklin, midnight moonlight black ipa, and there trail head pale ale. bone head was great and Benjamin danklin was prolly my favorite being more piney. they were all good. I grabbed a growler of danklin which i'm going to enjoy tonight for the 4th. I highly recommend any hophead to check this place out. even if you're not their bumble berry is really solid. grabbed a 6 of that on the way out. only negatives are the limited food options and head hunter needs to be in six packs. anything over 8.5%abv I find tolerable for a four pack. also I love the 5oz pours for only 1.75 or 2$.

P.S. BOTTLE THE DANKLIN!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Ohio for the something different runaround, I’ve got a few days to burn. ‘Are you sure this is it?’ I asked, as we turned into a massive industrial complex. I mean, I saw the sign, but are you sure there’s a brewpub here? So it is. Slight snow at the entrance mid-February still, and in...

Giant fucking space, and it’s all tanks to the ceiling; most of it, anyway; save the small front corner of the world set to bar & seating. ‘C’ shaped thin slat wood laminate topped bar, corrugated curvy stainless steel base, & a piping foot rail; seating for a bake’s doz on hightop wood chairs. Tower of 8 with logo handles on the bar, another to the backside, and a tower of 6 on the rear wall, with glassware stacked & shelved, and growls for the filling. Horizontal blackboard on the wall above listing tap selections in alt colored chalk.

Red concrete floors, corrugated ceiling with giants spinny fans, and the cinder block walls done in white upper over blue lowers with a red stripe, except for the inner wall done in sky blue with clouds for the ‘no, you’re not inside working, you’re outside, it’s a beautiful day’ effect. Trellis above the bar and across the space adjacent with hop vines lining. Strung baby Xmas lighting, drop Fatheads growler lamps, and dangle pan lamps. Faux spears with the uprights (and running the sills to the brew room side), glow rope strung. A few flats for the games, a bright logo jungle mural scene, GABF metals framed, specials on big boards, and swag next door.

A dozen and a half tables; a mish mosh of blue pic-a-nic tables off the bar, some laminate over house bottle caps topped square hightops further out, a few barrel tables in the corner, and bar counter space along the perimeter sill.

18 taps; I may have sampled a few (Headhunter IPA, 7.5%, dank resin piney; Sunshine Daydream Session IPA, 4.9%, assertive for a session; Bumble Berry Honey Blueberry Ale, 5.3%, a nice little sweety, not cloying or sickly; Kolhminator Smoked Bock, 7%, phenol; Battle Axe Baltic Porter, 8.6%, dark fruit & dark chocolate, a bit boozy; Starlight Lager, 5.2%, clean, crisp lager, win; Jungle Juiced Head Hunter IPA, 7.5%, orange juiced up, still not over the top; Smoldering Session IPA, 4.9%, oh, habanero, I see, done lightly though; Trail Head Pale Ale, 6.3%, solid pale ale; Up In Smoke Smoked Porter, 6.3%, a bit phenol; Prohibition Pauly Porter, 6.6%, chocolate goodness; Alpen Glow Weizenbock, 8.7%, banananana, lovely moonglowiness; Goggle Fogger Hefe Weizen; 5.4%, sure, banana, sure), and another couple I didn’t get to (Hop Juju Imperial IPA, 9%; Shakedown Imperial American Stout, 8.5%; 2015 BA Battle Axe Baltic Porter, 10.6%; Head Trip Belgian Tripel, 9.5%), and a single guest tap (B Nektar Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser, 6%). Headhunter IPA, Starlight Lager, Trail Head Pale Ale, Prohibition Pauly Porter, & Alpen Glow Weizenbock were the best of ‘em.

Food? Fuck, yes. I thought you’d never ask. Smokehouse wings, please. Big ass wings them, dry rub, yes, and thank you. Theys was real good. And a Cajun shrimp basket panic impulse after thought. Shrimp, fried, need I say more? Witzel had a smoked chicken spinach artichoke (so he wouldn’t have to share), and a house brisket sandwich (delicious!). As usual, way too much food.

Cool house. Bright, colorful, and loud (in volume & attitude). Good 80’s & 90’s music. Place has filled in nicely since we arrived, you can tell people want to bum our seats. Beer here; some standouts and really no clunkers, and enough food for an early dinner.

 

 

 

The brewery is located in an industrial park in Middleburg Heights, about 15 minutes from downtown Cleveland. We were set to begin the last leg of a long, Boston-to-Iowa roadtrip. It was a grey and sharp day after an unusually warm late December, and we were hungover from the previous day's hockey game in Buffalo. Plus, you know, regular ol' holiday melancholy--Charlie Brown existentialist stuff, the routinization of a time period that once felt so magical, the sinking feeling that I'm somehow wasting life by not having children of my own, dread at having to see how far my parents have aged since last Christmas...

I've wanted to visit Great Lakes for over a decade but I've never before passed through Cleveland with any time to spare. They were closed on Sundays, though, so we just sat out front for a few minutes and weighed our options. I was sad, childishly, as if some kind of dream had been squashed. But then I remembered that a vague, weak desire does not constitute a dream, even if it is more than ten years old. It was time to be an adult. To move on.

We drove the extra little ways to North Olmstead, to Fat Head, a brewery I liked when they distributed to Indiana the last year or so that I lived there. Their highest rated beers were always hard to find, so I figured hey, this might yield something nice.

And yes, it did.

Fat Head's tap room was *exactly* the sort of place we needed to visit on this particular road trip. It wasn't uplifting or ostentatious. They had not gone all out on holiday decoration (there were some nice lights and trees and whatfor, but nothing a couple of people couldn't have put up in an hour or two). It was neither intimate nor bustling. The waitress was friendly but she did not sit down at our table or fake flirt so as to garner more tips.

It was, in short, a place that did not give a fuck. In the best possible way. It's the genuine version of the sort of chill that those Jimmy Buffet chain restaurants attempt to evoke, the sort of place you go when you want reality to become more tolerable but don't want any sort of hallucinogenic return to childhood.

The tap selection was about 20 deep and everything was super good. The food was solid pub fare. But the atmosphere was what really sold the place.

 

Worth the visit. Very cool production brewery and tap house. Great food, service and beer!

 

Great place! As you walk in the door gift shop on your right where you can buy merchandise or bottles to go. To the right is the brewery and taproom which is split by a semi wall blocking the brewery area from the seating. There are a few table tops and picnic tables and bar seating. Food was as per Fat Head's usual pretty good if you like bar food. Was there at the Hop Juju release place was fairly busy, no seats left anyway, and service was exemplary our waitress was back to our table multiple times even as busy as they were that night. Great place keep a sharp eye out for their sign when you arrive it is not flashy or huge but they are in a long industrial warehouse building so if you drive past you know it is one of those long buildings.

Small menu but always solid food. Beer is phenomenol and they have bottles to go as well for sale on site! Brewery tours available saturdays I believe. They have odd hours so check before making the trip.

 

 

 

Food was pretty good, but nothing so far that I would go back for. Smells great! Nothing like drinking right in the brewery. Tap list was world class even without the guest beers, but there were some great ones there too. Plenty of room, and the gift shop is pretty nice with carry out beer available. The brew pub is a better option for me though. Bigger/better food menu and tons of beers

 

 

 

 

I really have nothing but good things to say. This is one of my favorite breweries on the planet earth, and I am fortunate enough to live within a reasonable drive. Very chill atmosphere, friendly staff, and some of the best IPA's there is.