Like the description above points out, while the name may be “Crusher” and the lovely taste may encourage you to drink a few pints of this beer in quick succession, the ABV of 8% will make you realize quite quickly that taking your time is more prudent. What makes this such a wonderful beer is how elegant it is – sure there’s a lot going on in the hop profile, but beyond that, it is a fairly straight-forward DIPA but one crafted in an almost magical mix of water, hops, yeast, and malt. That is a virtue/feature and not a problem/bug. To that point, I find it almost impossible to believe the IBU of this beer is 110, the highest IBU of any beer I’ve ever consumed and enjoyed. Perhaps the most standout element of this beer is how sweet it is compared to many other IPAs and DIPAs I’ve had. Rather, the bitterness for me was absolutely perfect. Fortunately, the bitterness of the hops is not the least bit cloying. Like a lot of DIPAs, this beer has a maltiness that balances out the hops very well. I wanted to drink this one quickly because it was so delicious, but I didn’t want it to be gone quickly so I didn’t guzzle it. I let the beer sit in my mouth a bit to get the full flavor and my goodness does this beer do so many things perfectly well. I couldn’t believe what a cornucopia of flavors was in just a sip of the beer so, of course, I took another taste, though more than a sip. Crusher’s hop profile is a banging bouquet of deliciousness, one of the most perfectly citrusy hopped profiles I’ve ever had in a beer. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to expect, but that first sip is a bombastic assault of hops flavor. The 16oz can opens and out drifts an aroma of hops that is both different than other IPAs I’ve experienced, yet similar, but just more of it, if that makes sense. You’ll notice there’s no glass of beer in the photo – the Alchemist recommends drinking most of their beers directly from the can, which I did with this beer. Fast forward a year and another friend happened to have just visited Vermont and he brought back some goodies from the Alchemist, including this Double IPA – Crusher. Brewer/owner John Kimmich’s most famous creation, Heady Topper, is one of those whale beers that every beer geek wants to try at least once and I was fortunate enough to share a can last Fourth of July with a friend. It is basically the brewery that helped to give birth to the popular New England IPA style of beer. Enjoy responsibly, this one can sneak up on you.įans of small, independent breweries have known of the legendary Alchemist for years. This beer is oozing with hop flavor and aroma with a very dry finish. While I enjoy Hops with the rest of them, I still try to maintain some semblance of balance and drinkability. So in the words of Frank Zappa, “Did you say want some more? Well, here’s some more.” Hop heads were constantly asking for more hops. This is why the top of each Heady has an impossible-to-miss command in capital letters: DRINK FROM THE CAN.Ī few tweaks to the process-filling each can faster creates extra foam that keeps air at bay while the top is secured-and now you get the full flavor of Heady for months: an effervescent mix of citrus and pine made from special hybrid hop strains sourced from the Pacific Northwest, added late in the brewing process (they use CO 2 hop extract for bitterness).Crusher is an American Double India Pale Ale that I started making years ago at the old pub. The narrow opening concentrates the beer's intense aroma on every sip. Cans protect the beer from sunlight, which can wreak havoc on Heady's fragile hop oils. Because Heady is an unfiltered beer, it remains alive and especially volatile after packaging. It was something that could be fixed."Ĭans are important at The Alchemist. "That was just fantastic," he says, "because we knew it wasn't us. He finally had his answer: the canning process. He wanted to find out how the scant amount of dissolved oxygen, which can break down the hops and slowly erode Heady's complex flavor, was getting into the beer. It sells out in less than a day and is so popular that the brewery had to stop tours and retail sales to appease the neighbors. The Kimmiches make a double India pale ale called Heady Topper-considered one of the best beers in the world. This past April John and Jen Kimmich, the husband and wife duo behind the wildly successful brewery The Alchemist, in Waterbury, Vermont, got excellent news: Something was wrong with their canning line.
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