Over the past decade, if anyone uttered the words “The Alchemist,” they were most likely followed by the words “Heady Topper.” Sure, a couple people could’ve probably named Focal Banger, the brewery’s second canned offering, which The Alchemist debuted in January 2013. But after that, beyond beer nerds, knowledge of the catalogue dropped precipitously. Never the less, John Kimmich is credited with introducing the Hazy IPA style to the world (known as New England IPA) using the yeast (WLP013, Conan, Burlington etc.) favoured by his mentor Greg Noonan, owner and brewmaster of the Vermont Pub & Brewery where John started his brewing career & author of several important brewing books (New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home - And Microbrewers [1996], Scotch Ale [1993], Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers Handbook [1997])

“John had eight years of brewing every style of beer you can imagine,” says his wife, The Alchemist Brewery co-founder Jen Kimmich. “Each time John brews a beer, he tweaks it. He’s really an artist, a genius with that… We probably had eighty to ninety different beers.” That is, right up until a flood caused by Tropical Storm Irene put the Alchemist Pub and Brewery in Waterbury, VT, under several feet of water, and subsequently out of business, in August 2011.

Now that production is humming in their larger production facility in Stowe, the man behind Heady Topper is reaching back into the archives, once again brewing those pub favorites lost to the flood. The storm water didn’t sink The Alchemist, it set its puppet master free.

“One of the things we got away from, that gave us a clean break after losing the pub, is that all expectations were gone,” says John. “It gave me the total creative freedom again to go in any direction we wanted. We weren’t tied into anything, we could start doing some new thinking.”

What Is Heady Topper? No single American beer has been doted upon with as much unrelenting, unabashed praise as Heady Topper. Depending on who you ask, it’s the IPA that launched a movement, that singularly converted the Big Beer masses to craft, or, perhaps, created the taste for an entirely new style all its own. Regardless — and John refutes all of this — it’s one of the best beers ever made in America.

Although John and Jen founded their brewery on the wings of a pub with an extensive and celebrated beer list, The Alchemist quickly became a one-beer wonder. (“The one beer people always went crazy for was Heady Topper,” says Jen.) That is, until 2013 — two years after Heady’s first canned release — when Focal Banger hit the market.

Focal Banger was an absolute success. “It still has the structure of Heady Topper,” says Jen. “But Focal is more modern. It’s hop-forward. It’s not as malty. There’s more tropical flavor.”

Of course, Focal has John’s artistry, but it’s decidedly not Heady Topper. And that’s what makes it great. In addition to 9,000 annual barrels of Heady Topper and “another 3,000 to 4,000 of specialties,” The Alchemist Brewery now produces 6,000 barrels of Focal Banger. It’s proof positive that those early years of experimenting made John Kimmich the legendary brewer he is today.