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.
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).
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
