The Quest for Heady Topper

My wife and I went to Burlington yesterday to do one thing: buy Heady Topper! OK, maybe we went for other things too, which I'll tell you about, but my brother wanted me to buy some Heady Topper and I was not planning to disappoint.

What is Heady Topper you might ask? Made by The Alchemist (their website here), they basically do not make much else except for special releases here and there, like The Crusher, Focal Banger, Beelzebub, Holy Cow IPA, Luscious, and a few others. Heady Topper is their one consistently produced beer. It is an outstanding American Double IPA (8% ABV) that is hailed as the top of its class. If you are a hop head (meaning you love hoppy brews) you've doubtlessly heard of or already made a pilgrimage to Burlington to get Heady Topper. The big issue is that Heady Topper only sells within some 30 miles of Burlington and it is hard to get. This, I believe, is a specific decision by The Alchemist to keep Heady Topper as fresh as possible in aroma and taste. It is unpasteurized and the can instructs you to "DRINK FROM THE CAN!" so you will not lose any of the aroma just from pouring the beer into a glass. Yes, it comes in cans as well, less light pollution I suppose, and who doesn't love a pint sized can of great beer? Made with six different hops, each hop gives its own specific flavor and hops are meant to come in waves as you drink.

So, we knew that Heady Topper was hard to get. We check the website and consulted the detailed list of which stores receive Heady Topper on which days (in this case Thursday) and found that only one beer store received shipments of Heady Topper on Thursday, the rest were bars. We arrived around 1 pm and looked throughout the exceptional selection of beers on the shelves and eventually asked the worker at the counter. She gave us sort of a look, like "you newbs", because Heady Topper was coming in at 6 pm and apparently there would be a line. My brother pre-paid me for a case and we were instructed to arrive an hour early to get a case. We left and came back later.

A little break in the story here, just to keep the suspense up...between searching for Heady Topper and coming back later for Heady Topper, Brynn and I went to do some tasting. First we went to Citizen Cider in Winooski. We had a flight of ciders from their limited release cellar. I figure limited releases are harder to find so why try the regulars that will always be around? We had these five: U.P. Wild, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cider, Chapin, Addison County Hop and Stan Wild. Honestly we were a little disappointed after loving The Dirty Mayor (a ginger and lemon cider), none of these were nearly as good.
Tasting Notes:
(1) U.P. Wild - a dry and still version of Unified Press (their flagship cider) fermented spontaneously with native yeasts, just not crazy about the yeasty flavor and the still-ness.
(2) Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cider - mostly dry, aged in oak, we liked this one, but the oak was overpowering enough to not make you want to drink a lot of this at one time. My wife's favorite.
(3) Chapin - dry, bottle-conditioned, blend of apples from Chapin Orchard in Essex, VT, this was just a different tasting cider because of the apples, couldn't tell if the original apples were sweet or sour.
(4) Addison County Hop - off-dry, bright, citrusy and balanced with Cascade hops from Addison County Hop Farm, this was my favorite because of the aroma and balance the hops brought to the cider.
(5) Stan Wild - off-dry version of Stan Up (dry, keg-conditioned with heirloom apple blends) with wild yeast, again we were not crazy about the yeast flavor.
I believe all of these ciders were 6.9% ABV. You can see about Citizen Cider on their website here.

Next, we went to Magic Hat brewery for a tasting and tour! After previewing their website, I was convinced that Magic Hat would be a fun place to visit and we both agreed after going. Their brewery is called the Artifactory and is industrial looking inside with a sweet round bar with tons of taps, tons of merch and lots of artwork throughout the place. Tours were free and unsupervised except for on the hour, so we went at 5 pm for a guided tour to learn a little more. Started in 1994, Magic Hat was truly a two man outfit that started from one man's homebrews and grew into what it is today, reaching 48 states and internationally. Vermont is also a very local and home grown kind of place, so that had a lot to do with its success. First we tasted, then we toured.
Tasting notes:
(1) Single Chair - a golden ale, very much like a pilsner, crisp and bready, light. 5 % ABV. More here.
(2) Circus Boy - a Hefeweizen, very clean even with the haze, only brewed with lemongrass unlike most hefeweizens. Liked this one. 4.5% ABV. More here.
(3) #9 Not Quite Pale Ale - the secret is out, brewed with apricot extract, which doesn't come out too much but smoothens this brew out nicely. 5.1% ABV. More here.
(4) Wilhelm Scream - a pumpkin ale brewed without pumpkin according to the attendant serving us, only spices like all-spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I miss the pumpkin. 5.4% ABV. More here.
(5) Dream Machine IPL - an IPA mixed with a Lager, brewed with lager yeast, I felt like this had more aroma than bitterness from the hops which was nice. 5.7% ABV. More here.
(6) Over the Pils Imperial Pilsner (Humdinger Series) - this was somewhat the opposite of the IPL, more bitter less aroma. 8.1% ABV. Notes missing from their website and only available at the Artifactory.
(7) Big Hundo - a double/imperial IPA with 100 IBU of hops, hoppy and bitter, not the super aroma/flavor profile of a Heady Topper as it only uses two kinds of hops in the boil and dry hops with only Simcoe. 9% ABV. More here.
(8) Meat Whistle Imperial Stout - aged since 2011 in bourbon barrels, this one had quite the aged flavor, rich and dark. I felt like maybe they aged this a touch too long, but that's my opinion. 11% ABV. Only available at the Artifactory.

My favorite: not sure, a tie between the Circus Boy, Dream Machine IPL, Imperial Pilsner and Big Hundo.

After our tasting we toured, here's some photos of their bottling line:

This machine put the labels on in front and in back the boxer where a mechanic was working on fixing the line so it would run again.

Bottles waiting to be labeled

Pretty big outfit, but what impressed me most was they had one bottling line, and their filler was gigantic (sorry no picture of that). Their fermentation room was also off-limits because they open-cask ferment their beers to allow for better yeast re-harvesting and any dirt of other yeasts let in could ruin an entire batch.

After our tour we headed back for the Heady Topper. Upon arriving to a full parking lot we went inside to find a line of about 100-150 people wrapped around the isles. We found the end and a guy told us we were "the end" and guaranteed at least a four pack!

The "end of the line"

6pm came and we waited through the line until it was our turn and did end up receiving two 4-packs each, so just two 4-packs short of a case! Not bad. So, my brother gets a half case and we bought 2 beers from him as our handling fee. Mission successful. Oh, we also picked up a Maple Tap Imperial Porter by Harpoon and a Citizen Cider bRose, their blueberry cider.

Back home, we tried the Heady Topper and the Maple Tap Imperial Porter.

Notes: 

(1) Heady Topper - well worth the wait, so aromatic and flavorful, grapefruit, orange, pine, others I couldn't quite pick out, and super smooth and drinkable for an IPA. 8% ABV. Probably the best IPA I've had.

(2) Maple Tap Imperial Porter - Smelled and tasted like it was aged in oak, some vanilla, but relaly the sugary maple was what produced that taste I think, chocolate and coffee notes rounded out the aftertaste. A little light in the mouth. 9.1% ABV. More here.

Heady Topper takes the cake on this one. No competition. And that completes the quest for Heady Topper!