First and foremost - heavily hyped beers rarely live up to the hype, but Heady Topper is definitely one of the best commercial IPA’s I’ve ever tried.
Aroma is like burying your face in a bag of hops. There’s plenty of fruit, but there’s also this great hop cone/lupulin on your fingers smell that rarely makes it all the way into the finished beer. The flavor has some citrus, but is more skewed to the piny/herbal side. Bitterness is nice and firm on the middle of the tongue, but not harsh or abrasive. The hop aroma and flavor are clearly more the focus than the bitterness. The finish has plenty of hop flavor continuing on for a good while.
What I really like about Heady Topper is that the bitterness doesn’t feel harsh or raw, and it doesn’t feel like someone just painted hop resin on your tongue that’s never going to wash off. As much as I enjoy beers like “Go To” and “Enjoy By”, or my own IPA’s for that matter, I get some bitterness character that’s a bit rough (almost like raw hops) when trying to push the hop flavor envelope. Whatever they’re doing at Alchemist, they really have it dialed in.
Lately for APA and IPA I’ve been doing a bittering charge with no other boiling additions,and getting all my hop flavor and aroma from hop stands and dry hopping. I think it’s gonna be my MO on these styles now. Really liking the results.
I’m pretty sure they use a hop extract for bittering. I was thinking about cloning it but it just didn’t blow me away to the point that i wanted to spend ~100 bucks on 5 gallons of it. I felt the same about this beer as I did the first time I had pliny the elder.
I very much enjoyed the Alchemist back when they were a brewpub/restaurant. I used to go there any chance I could get. It always bugged me a bit when I was getting together with folks in waterbury and the DIDN’T want to go to the Alchemist. I can’t see waiting in line for anymore than about 10 minutes to buy some heady though.
To be fair, just this weekend I skipped the Russian River pub for the very same reason. There was a line half a block long to sit down for lunch and I just wasn’t up for it.
I never got to go to the brew pub. I so missed the days when I could walk into the brewery and buy a case on a Sunday afternoon. Damn you Ratebeer and Beer Advocate!!!
A guy from my club was just out at Russian River a couple weeks ago and said the same thing. He got there just after 11am and by 11:45am there was a line. And this was during the week.
I had someone I know who was coming down from Stowe pick me up a 4 pack a few weeks ago so I could try it for the first time. I wasn’t completely blown away but was impressed. In fairness I was having some pollen allergies going on so I don’t think I was getting the full hop explosion people are blown away by. I was very impressed though by what Eric was talking about: it is one of the few hops dominant beers I’ve had that wasn’t an affront to my taste buds. There was something about the bitterness aspect that was less over the top and smoother than most IPA’s. Its like someone stepped backed and looked at where the style had gone and said " well this is stupid, let’s fix it"
I thought it was good, but it certainly didn’t change my world. I find most of the hyped beers are very good when I get to have them, but after consumption I always seem to notice my socks are still on my feet.
+1. The lack of availability gives a very good or excellent beer the ‘legendary’ cult status. I’ve had Westy 12, Pliny, and Heady - they’re all excellent beers, but not so much better than the competition to justify the excess hype IMO.
Let me chime in please…The first (and only) time I tried Heady Topper I was blown away…I am hugely obsessed with IPAs and know what is good. Most IPAs these days are way over the top with harsh bitterness and weird hop combos that leave a strange smell and flavor. Heady Was silky smooth, very clean bitter, and the piny/fruity, juicy, peachy combo an IPA should be. I have became so obsessed with Heady it is my new mission to create this beer using the famous Conan Yeast. This is definitely one of the best commercial IPAs ever made…
You guys mention Russian River Pliny the Elder and I must agree, It did not blow my hair back. Their marketing department is the reason that beer is “so great.”
i’ve made a clone with yeast cultured up from several cans from a friend. Clone was very good, almost as good as the real deal, though when the punch of the dryhop started to fade, it went downhill to just a ‘good beer’ very quickly. same goes for the real deal - it has about a month lifespan. i think the less harsh bitterness is a product of the yeast used - clone calced at 300 or so ibus, with 6oz/12gal of ultra high AA (apollo?) at the beginning and it still was a smooth bitterness.
lbond2 -lets be fair here, RR’s ‘marketing department’ is about the same size as the Alchemist’s. what causes the hype is the beerheads on BA and RateBeer. Pliny has been around longer so it may seem that its got more ‘behind it’ but I don’t think RR is producing all that much more than Alchemist who just expanded, relatively speaking. They’re private family businesses that are focused on making good product and just so happen to both be very popular right now, and while it sucks for some of us that demand>supply, its pretty cool that they’re so successful
Sounds like a hell of a good clone, Paul ! And I agree with the ‘month lifespan’, having had HT. Honestly I feel the same about my IPAs too, though - it’s why I arrange to have enough friends over to kill them in a month or less.
Pliny is a great beer, but it is highly over hyped. Helps to remember that it was one of the very first IIPAs (some argue the first) out there - it literally paved the way for Heady Topper. Also, as with all IPAs - if its not fresh it won’t live up to the hype. I drank it at the source and it was a very excellent beer. Not the best IIPA I ever had, but brewery fresh and fantastic non-the-less.
I have made some of the historic recipes from when IPA was shipped to India. They are very bitter and dry.
The first IPA I had was Ballantines IPA about 1974. It had so much flavor, bitterness and alcohol it was a shock in 1974. About 7% and 65 IBU in the time of all light lagers. Lots of hops like Bullion and Cluster were used. I have been brewing a homebrew recipe of that beer, and it is one that everyone loves.
I had Russian River’s Pliny a long time ago in Santa Rosa when Simcoe was a new hop - and it did blow my hair back. My socks were not found.
Hop bursting and whirlpool hopping is somewhat new. Add dry hopping, and you have how these new IPAs are made. They are tasty when used with all of the new fruity hops out there.
I have had a taste of heady at a club meeting and thought it was very good. I thought the Pliny that was on the table was also very good.
The 2 most memorable IPAs that I have had in the last few years were Fatheads Headhunter and La Cumbre’s Elevated IPA. Those were really tasty.
I’ve been entertaining the idea of a trip to VT under the guise of a ski/snowboarding trip with my wife… and while that will be done, my ulterior motive is to seek and and procure a case of Heady. Now, I’ve never had it, but as someone who is a veritable hop-head, and based off of the accounts of other’s whose palates I respect and value — all they’ve had to say about it was nothing short of superb.
I recently received some Vermont Ale yeast from The Yeast Bay, which is alluded to be isolated from The Alchemist Heady. Very excited to work with it!
+1. I was blown away by fresh Pliny as well, though the hype has gotten pretty over the top IMO. Great beer though. But I drank a ton of fresh Blind Pig and couldn’t get enough. It’s the IPA I’ve tried to emulate more than any other.
gonna agree the beer is great and overhyped. Give me Blind Pig. The “marketing department” comment you replied to made me laugh though.
lbond2: do you really think it is RR’s actions, and not that of their fans, that has created the hype? C’mon.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the marketing Dept. at RR is Vinnie and his Wife. Their beer is what drives their marketing.Not sure if it is still the case but the last time I spoke with him he didn’t even have a FB page.
