Heady Stuff by Tony Meneo Hello Bob- Thought you might enjoy my recent adventure when I went on a mission to get Heady Hopper made by The Alchemist Brewery. Some say it's the world’s best beer and after having my first one I can understand why it's become such a phenomenon. Anyway, I showed up at Hunger Mountain Coop beer store in Montpelier, Vermont on a freezing Thursday morning and got in line. Yes, I said line. I started talking to a few people ahead of me and, well, you judge their sanity. One of them drove all night from South Carolina and slept in a parking lot, the other left Natick, Mass., at the crack of dawn so he could be in line by 8 AM. The Alchemist brewery churns out 45,600 16-ounce cans of Heady, a double India Pale, ale each week, the only beer it produces regularly. It’s distributed only within a 20-mile radius of its tiny Waterbury brewery, and if the 5,000 or so residents of the town had all the Heady Topper to themselves, they’d still be lucky to land a case every other week. Every can sells — most within a few hours of hitting store shelves. Heady Topper has spurred a demand that causes beer-lovers to drive hundreds of miles and pay hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to crack a signature black-and-silver can. On Craigslist in Boston, a case was selling for $250 — each four-pack of cans costing nearly as much as a barrel of crude oil. One guy was caught trying to smuggle the beer out of the brewpub where it was born by pouring it into bottles and affixing ersatz labels. Most weeks, the line at Hunger Mountain Coop stretches out into the parking lot; on the day I went it was 17 below zero, so the store manager, passed out numbers and let people wander around inside. Online, The Alchemist lists the day each store, bar, and restaurant offers Heady Topper. Hunger Mountain is one of a handful of stores that sell the beer by the 24-can case, for about $80. I heard that John Kimmich, co-owner and head brewer at The Alchemist, never dreamed the beer he created would be so sought after. After working several jobs to save the money to start their own business, John and Jen Kimmich finally opened their brewpub in 2003. They made good beer, and word got out. When they caught a guy stealing and reselling Heady Topper, they realized this could turn into something really big. How's this for a story Bob - the thief was buying pints at the bar and pouring the beer into bottles in the men’s room, carefully capping each with a special tool. He affixed labels he had made using art from the Alchemist’s website. It is very scarce. Consider that the roughly 100,000 cases sold every year are matched by Bud Light sales every three hours! Still, if your looking for the beer around Waterbury you'll be surprised how many bars and restaurants seem to have it for about $8 a can. By the way, I'm really lucky living in the area since The Alchemist is hardly the only famous brew in this corner of Vermont. In Greensboro, people stand in line for hours for a few gallons of Hill Farmstead’s famed creations. Special releases from Lawson’s Finest Liquids, in nearby Warren, can be even harder to find. That's it. Hope you found it interesting and consider publishing it. ----------- Many thanks for your article, Tony. I agree Heady is a great beer well worth the hype. You are indeed lucky to be in an area of such great brews. Now if you ever want to send me some...... I'd like to invite everyone to send me their own columns about anything related to beer/drinking/booze just as Karl did. I select the best and publish them here. So join in and get writing! Cheers! Bob |
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