![]() Smell: Almost entirely allium-savory to my nose (garlic greens etc.), with some fruit skins and forest floor for some earthiness. White head that built up nicely but it didn’t last. Orange? Tropical Fruit? Pink Grapefruit? Pine? Spice? There is just enough malt to give this beer some backbone, but not enough to take the hops away from the center stage.Īppearance: Golden color, light honey, with less haze than Focal Banger-it’s more translucent. Take a big sip of Heady and see what hop flavors you can pick out. We brew Heady Topper with a proprietary blend of six hops – each imparting its own unique flavor and aroma. It is brewed to give you wave after wave of hop flavor without any astringent bitterness. This Double IPA is not intended to be the strongest or most bitter DIPA. The Alchemist has been brewing Heady Topper since 2003. Heady Topper was designed to showcase the complex flavors and aromas these flowers produce. We love hops – that’s why our flagship Double IPA, Heady Topper, is packed full of them. I found more of a description for HT on Untappd: Overall: It certainly emphasizes hops! It’s a nice, big, IPA experience. ![]() Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, creamy, smooth. Big resiny hop notes with flavors of green papaya, bitter grapefruit pith, light green peppercorn. Soft, luscious malt that’s creamy, smooth, lightly bready yet rich-like a brioche. Big flavors here are blending with the big bitterness. Taste: Spicy-green bitterness, riffing on mustard and radish greens, with some tobacco. There are hints of mustard greens and pineapple rind. Smell: Tropical fruit/passion fruit initially, with some spicy light chive or scallion greens, then it goes a touch minerally with crushed hop stems and some green algae. There’s not much official description I see per se, but FB is brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops (according to Untappd).Īppearance: This is definitely a hazy it’s pale gold and murky, with a white head that’s fine with a bit of slightly-whipped egg white look to it. No, it’s not a perfect comparison but it was useful for starting with the “smaller” of the two beers. The classifications are a bit vague, but I think of Focal Banger as the Alchemist version of Russian River Brewing’s Blind Pig IPA as compared to Pliny the Elder-so Focal Banger is the “regular” IPA with 7% alcohol by volume, vs. You can’t expect me to get a hold of the proto-NEIPAs and not expect me to pour them into a glass! Focal Banger I (mostly) understand where The Alchemist is coming from in saying that but, no. One thing to note, is the “Drink from the can!” tagline on the beers. They were fairly fresh, and I drank them right way (within 10-12 days of packaging), though that was a bit over a month ago so I’m just now posting my review notes. This even despite the fact that cans of both Focal Banger and Heady Topper starting showing up periodically here in Bend over the past year.įortunately I had the opportunity to pick up a can of each to finally (finally!) see what the fuss is all about. For the longest time I somehow managed to not drink any beers from one of the most famous New England-style IPA breweries-indeed, contender for inventing the hazy, NEIPA style- The Alchemist of Vermont.
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