
The story of Heady Topper, Americas most loved craft beer - Dangeranger
https://longreads.com/2017/03/01/the-story-of-heady-topper-americas-most-loved-craft-beer/
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joezydeco
I've tried a Heddy Topper (it was offered to me in a restaurant in
Burlington), I live near Goose Island, and I've consumed New Glarus in
Wisconsin.

To me it's all about the scarcity. People waiting overnight for limited-
edition brews, crossing state lines to buy exclusive brands...it adds this
psychological value to the beer.

When you strip that away you're left with another 100+ IBU beer that my palate
eventually can't take anymore.

~~~
whistlerbrk
Yeah, the obsession in America over IPAs really needs to end. I'm sure this is
a good brew, but the vast majority of them seem to me to be an exercise in
absurdity. Too high ABV and so bitter you can't taste the fact that most of
these beers have nothing else to offer in terms of body or flavor.

I liken it to Starbucks drip, you like it because in order to make it
palatable you have to dump sugar and cream into it.

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joezydeco
_most of these beers have nothing else to offer in terms of body or flavor_

The hoppiness can also hide a lot of problems in the beer.

Having spent a lot of time in Germany I can appreciate the pilsners, where the
mistakes have nowhere to hide.

~~~
SippinLean
>The hoppiness can also hide a lot of problems in the beer.

A common myth, the hardest part of a pils is maybe the decoction mash and
having good water. IPAs and DIPAs are much more complex recipes requiring
several steps post-fermentation, pils really just needs to be lagered.

Any commercial brewery will have solved sanitation and 90% of off-flavors,
they don't brew IPA because they are easy, they do it because they sell.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/beercirclejerk/comments/5dqvu0/doub...](https://www.reddit.com/r/beercirclejerk/comments/5dqvu0/double_ipas_the_easiest_beer_in_the_world_to_make/)

~~~
kd0amg
What steps did you have in mind? It's been some time since I last made an IPA,
but I don't remember it involving any more post-fermentation work than
anything else I've made.

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danbruc
An American craft brewery is a small, independent, and traditional brewery
where small means a production of less than 6 million [US beer] barrels per
year. [1] A US beer barrel seems to be 177.348 liters so that we get slightly
more than 7 million hectoliters. The largest German brewery produced 5.5
million hectoliters in 2002. [2] So US small is German largest plus 25%? Or
did I make a mistake, is there yet another barrel? In Germany you are
considered a large brewery above 0.25 million hectoliters or 140,965 barrels.

Also the world beer production seems to be just shy of 2 billion hectoliters
per year, so you can produce 0.35% of the world production and are still
considered small? That would also limit the number of non-small breweries to
286.

[1] [https://www.craftbeer.com/breweries/what-is-a-craft-
brewery](https://www.craftbeer.com/breweries/what-is-a-craft-brewery)

[2]
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Großbrauerei#Gr.C3.B6.C3.9Fte_...](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Großbrauerei#Gr.C3.B6.C3.9Fte_Brauereien_in_Deutschland)

~~~
daviross
Most of the issue there is that, due to tradition, the official definition
keeps getting bumped up so Samuel Adams counts. (Most recently from 2 million
to 6 million barrels)

More practically, I'd say to look at microbrewery limits, which are 15,000
barrels/year.

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wspeirs
3 Floyd's Alpha King[1]... best IPA/Pale Ale ever. Let the flame war begin!!!

[1] [https://www.3floyds.com/beer/alpha-
king/?age_verification=e7...](https://www.3floyds.com/beer/alpha-
king/?age_verification=e748750b71)

~~~
DisposableMike
I love Alpha King (and it's from my home state), but it's an American Pale
Ale. Not the same as an (IPA) India Pale Ale, and certainly not the same as a
double IPA.

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Dangeranger
What I found most compelling about the story wasn't the hype for Heady Topper,
but the attitudes of the owners John and Jen Kimmich. They took a disaster and
made the most out of it, and are now able to provide for 48 full time
employees.

While the beer is great, their story of perseverance over adversity is what
really matters here.

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jrlocke
Heady Topper is a great beer, but make no mistake, the astronomical esteem for
it stems not from its merits, but from its status as the progenitor of New
England style (cloudy) IPAs.

~~~
SippinLean
False dichotomy, it really is just a great beer as well.

To your credit when it first hit the scene it stood out a lot more than it
does now (there are three craft breweries in my area that release cans of NE-
style IPA every month).

~~~
jrlocke
I agree that it's great, but being 8th on Beer Advocate (4th amongst hoppy
beers) is to me too high.

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TYPE_FASTER
I think it deserves it.

~~~
SippinLean
to the parent's credit there's just so much competition now that didn't exist
when Heady rose to prominence (Other Half, Tree House, Veil, Trillium,
Monkish, LICBP etc) that maybe it's time to share the spotlight

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bobochan
I live in Vermont and love the new brewery and Heady Topper, but _OH MY
GOODNESS_ their stout, Beezlebub, is The Chosen One. It is the perfect
libation, absolutely without flaw. The brewery is over an hour a way and I
will happily jump in the car in a moments notice just to fill my trunk with
that delicious nectar.

The sales lines at the new brewery work incredibly efficiently and it was
staggering to see how much money, mostly in cash, was being handed over every
20 seconds as the line moved forward. These folks are geniuses and I am happy
to reward them.

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defen
If you like cheese and / or beer you owe to yourself to make a trip to Vermont
and visit Waterbury and / or Burlington. Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Lawson's
Finest Liquids, Jasper Hill Farm, etc

~~~
dugmartin
And then dip down into Western Mass - lots of good beers here too even for
non-IPA lovers like myself. If you want to try something a little different
grab some Ginger Libation.

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baccredited
Agree that Heady Topper is the best. Love Pliny the Elder and Zombie Dust
(which are almost as hard to get where I live) but Heady stands alone for me.

My favorite widely available IPA is Jai Alai. What is yours?

~~~
defen
I'm not sure how widely distributed it is, but if you're in Oregon, Breakside
Flagship IPA is easy to find year round and quite good.

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SirFatty
who? what?

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Never heard of this on the west coast. You mean there is beer made east of the
beerocracy states of Washington & Oregon? At least the hops must come from
here, right :-)

I wish it was available around here, but the legally required liquor industry
beer industry middlemen have too much power in what gets imported. In the
Seattle area there are dozens of brewerys in the city, plus zillions in
surrounding areas. There are so many it's virtually impossible to have visited
all of them, much less heard of them.

~~~
irongeek
The northeast is a beer mecca. You have great beer on the west coast but there
is beer just as good if not better here. A lot of hop farms are in
Pennsylvania and the New England states now.

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rm_-rf_slash
Sounds like the writer liked their beer a little too much to make a balanced
piece. It is my understanding that from coast-to-coast, America's most beloved
craft brewery is Dogfish Head, and that the most popular craft brewery (by
sales volume) is Sam Adams.

I have never heard of Heady Topper, and I used to drink like a fish.

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vermontdevil
Then you need to go up to Vermont and give it a try.

Plus Waterbury is a beautiful town to visit as well.

~~~
digitalsushi
It is astonishing how different the middle of Vermont is compared to the
middle of New Hampshire. I grew up, and live, in New Hampshire, but took my
first drive through to NY only a few short months ago, in late October, and
now regret the delay. What a beautiful part of the country, I recommend it to
anyone with a sense of aesthetics.

