How Heady Topper Became a Cult Beer
These days, you can’t walk into a brewery taproom without seeing at least one New England IPA on offer. Juicy, bitter, and bursting with tropical fruit flavors, the New England or hazy IPA substyle took off in the mid-2010s and went on to define nearly a decade of craft brewing. Yet, in a world where hazy IPAs can be found in nearly every corner of the country, there’s one that stands out from the pack and has maintained a rabid following: Heady Topper. But what is it that has allowed this beer to achieve its cult-like status? Well, in short, it’s because there likely wouldn’t be this level of hazy proliferation were it not for Heady Topper.
The beloved IPA is a product of The Alchemist, a family-owned brewery co-founded in Waterbury, Vt., by John and Jen Kimmich in 2003. John — who learned how to brew from the legendary Greg Noonan at the Vermont Pub and Brewery — was infatuated with hoppy, fruity, and floral brews, and immediately set out to create one of his own.
The result was Heady Topper, an 8 percent, Citra-dry-hopped double IPA made with a rare yeast strain Noonan gifted to John. Noonan himself acquired the yeast while in England in the 1980s and allowed John to use it in The Alchemist’s beers under the condition that he never share it with anyone. While the brewery has never disclosed what strain the yeast is, given Heady Topper’s rabid following, others were able to successfully reculture it, and it’s now commonly known as the Conan strain.
The first batch of Heady Topper rolled out just two months after the brewery opened, and it was an instant revelation. The murky golden beer was lush and vibrant, exploding with citrus and tropical fruit flavors, with a crisp, bitter finish — and it was unlike anything beer aficionados had ever tried before. And it looked different, too. According to John, they had to spend years at The Alchemist’s 60-seat brewpub educating guests on what a hazy IPA even was, the style was so unusual then.
The beer’s then-unique appearance didn’t do much to turn customers away, though. If anything, it drew them in. Initially, Heady Topper was only brewed in two batches per year, with all production done in the basement of the brewpub and all supply relegated to the taproom. Demand for the beer grew such that John expanded production to three times per year, and then later four. But still, all Heady Topper was exclusively available at the Waterbury brewpub.
Beyond its pioneering style and captivating profile, Heady Topper’s limited supply and taproom-specific availability only added to its allure. For years, beer lovers would take the pilgrimage to Vermont to try it, with some even finding clever ways to bring some home for themselves. At the Waterbury brewpub, it was apparently fairly commonplace for guests to order a pint of Heady and sneak off into the bathroom, where they would then pour it into a bottle and sneak it into a pocket or purse before returning to their seat. But starting in 2011, that practice would no longer be necessary.
Nine years after The Alchemist opened its doors, the brewery finally made Heady Topper available in cans. As it would turn out, the timing of the release could not have been better for the Kimmichs, as they opened a separate production brewery just days before Hurricane Irene destroyed their original brewpub. Undeterred, cans of Heady Topper rolled out just two days after the storm. And those very cans turned out to be their saving grace. In a 2018 interview with VinePair, John revealed that the flood very well “could’ve been the end of The Alchemist, but the cans, thank God, enabled us to keep moving forward.”
From 2011 to 2016, when The Alchemist opened its current taproom in Stowe, Vt., the brewery produced Heady Topper at this facility, selling cans at pop-up shops that regularly had hours-long lines. Unlike most other canned beers at the time, Heady Topper was packed in 16-ounce tallboys, which, paired with an elevated ABV, sent out a bat signal to craft beer lovers. It’s also a beer that’s designed to be consumed fresh (straight from the can) and needs to be refrigerated at all times, further enticing customers to line up for their chance to buy.
When the taproom opened in 2016, The Alchemist started releasing cans of Heady Topper every week, regularly selling out. Outside of the Stowe taproom, extremely limited allocations of Heady Topper were sent to local bottle shops and restaurants in a 20-mile radius, as well as select retailers in major cities along the East Coast. And similarly, these retailers often sold out.
Today, it’s fairly easy to score a can of Heady Topper, and like many cult-followed beverages, the beer is considered overrated by some. But while these cans might be relatively common to come by, there’s one version of the revolutionary hazy IPA that people are still willing to travel far and wide to try: hand-pulled Heady Topper.
Available exclusively at the Stowe taproom, the beer is served through a manually powered device patented in 1688 that draws beer directly from the barrel and results in a creamier, richer texture. Dispensing this way causes what John refers to as the “Guinness effect” as it lowers carbonation and softens some of the IPA’s characteristic bitterness. It’s a pour that brings new definitions to a beer that redefined craft beer and proves that Heady Topper is still worth traveling for.
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