Every once in a while, you think you totally know what you're going to blog about, and then some major story hits and the internet cracks in half with crazy (or at least the craft beer section of the internet, which, indicated by its behavior today, is very much like the rest of the internet).
If you have no idea what I'm alluding to, today The Alchemist, maker of the world-renowned (and in many places, highest rated) Heady Topper, announced that their cannery would no longer be open to the public as of November 15th. Importantly, they note that this decision will not affect their production levels or their current distribution accounts. Predictably, some of the loudest responses to this news were entitled flouncers, promising to take the Heady Topper stickers off their cars and cancel their planned trip to Vermont. These are probably the same people who have been complaining about how it's so unfair that people show up at the cannery and buy the place out before they can get any Heady.
I get it. People are passionate about things they love, and Heady Topper is one of the best-loved beers in all of craft... but let's take some perspective from history. Nowadays, The Alchemist just makes Heady Topper. This is because of a little Hurricane named Irene. The Alchemist was once a well-loved brewpub with several offerings. It wasn't long after they had opened their cannery to scale up production of their signature brew that the storm destroyed their pub and their brewing equipment. Because they were so loved, the new cannery saw quite a bit of business, to the point that there was trouble keeping up with demand as Heady's popularity grew and grew.
I visited the cannery not too terribly longer after Irene, and I saw just a small piece of the fervor that would only grow over the months. In just the short time I was there, I saw several people backing their cars up to the back door because they had just bought 4 cases. With demand increasing and production being, well, understandably finite, this model wasn't sustainable. The cannery started selling out faster and faster (their Twitter account was pretty much devoted to alerting people that they had run out until the next canning), and even the commercial accounts saw fans pouncing on deliveries as soon as the beer was wheeled through the door.
At several points, The Alchemist expanded production and was up to brewing 180 barrels of Heady Topper each week. That's something on the order of 44,640 cans, not accounting for spillage and such. They tried their hardest to meet demand locally, and hoped to be able to make enough beer to send it to other markets, such as Boston. Actually, this happened but once (at least officially), and I was lucky enough to get my allotted 2 cans (the maximum allowed at most places that got an allocation) at my local store... then performed a quick search online of who else got an allocation and found a store nearby that had NO IDEA that they had the Miles Davis of beer in stock (they had it out back in some corner of the cooler, at the bottom) and had no qualms about letting me buy as much as I wanted, even if they didn't quite understand why. That, friends, was a good day.
Digression aside, you might have guessed what happened. The demand for Heady Topper kept increasing, and the ramped up production was quickly absorbed. Even the touted 600% increase in their output over two years was no match for fans, people buying the beer as trade bait (since Heady is so hard to come by, people in the area will get some and use it to get other rare beers from trading partners all over the country) and the few bad apples (or at least questionable pears) that would buy cases just to resell them, sometimes on a retail level... which I guess isn't supposed to happen, but it totally happened. The next step was for The Alchemist to put a cap on how much could be purchased at the cannery, but today's news would suggest this wasn't particularly effective.
This is starting to get long, so let's wrap this up with some wild speculation. Wouldn't be a "beerbox" column if I didn't!
I know haters are going to hate, because the tautology wouldn't make much sense if they didn't. Still, everyone loved Heady so dang much five minutes ago that anger over a necessary business decision seems, to me, like threatening to hold your breath until you turn blue, then passing out and hitting your head on the coffee table. And to be sure, it was a necessary decision, even if we don't know the reason for it.
Perhaps they saw this as the only fair way to assure that a greater swath of people would be able to get their hands on their beer by shifting it all to their existing commercial accounts. You might also note in their blog, they mention that they are not taking on new accounts at this time, but you really have to say that along with an announcement like this unless you want retailers kicking down your door. It could also be that the level of business they were doing at the cannery was upsetting neighbors, and they didn't want something like what happened to Tree House Brewing to happen to them. Maybe this is all part of a super secret plan to free themselves to brew different beers again, or even widen their distribution.
Whatever it is, they didn't do this just because they felt like it, and the panic and hate and flouncing are unjustified and, frankly, stupid. Are you mad because you can't buy five cases of Heady Topper at a time, or because you'll have to go plan to go to stores instead on your Vermont trip? I really do think that by essentially subletting the decision about how much a single person can by to the retailers, this will make Heady Topper accessible to more people than when it was being bought by the case at the cannery. And you know what? There are lots of other great beer destinations in the part of Vermont. Check some of the other ones out on your way to the many fine stores that will still, now and in the future, carry Heady Topper.
Oh, and if you actually want to be upset about something, Mexican Coke is soon to be no more. You have my full permission to pull a nutty on that one.
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