One Iconic Beer: The Alchemist's Heady Topper
About this episode
This episode explores the impact of The Alchemist's Heady Topper on New England's beer culture and features interviews with key figures in the craft beer scene.
If you stop into most breweries and nearly any bar or restaurant in New England today, you’re going to see an IPA on the menu, and it will almost certainly be hazy. New England has one of the most distinctive beer cultures in the US. It wasn’t always like this, however. In fact, until about fifteen years ago, most New Englanders had never really encountered a hop. The Alchemist’s Heady Topper, the subject of today's episode of One Iconic Beer. John Kimmich started The Alchemist in 2003 with his wife Jen, and within months was making a beer that many people credit as the first hazy New England IPA. It’s a funny thing about firsts, though. As we’ll hear in the interview, Kimmich is uneasy with this description. Heady Topper may have sparked a region-wide culture shift, but it doesn’t really resemble the beers that follow. Today we’ll hear the story of Heady Topper, why its fans think it’s so good, why it was the right beer at the right time, and how serendipity played a starring role in the form of a hurricane, a flood, and a new canning line. In addition to John Kimmich, we’ll hear from Jason Alstrom, one of the co-founders of Boston-based BeerAdvocate. In the early days of the…
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