When will Heady Topper be overtaken as #1?

When Tree House amps up Julius production

 

I've heard this quite a bit. I only had FB once (at Blackback in Waterbury) but I found it to be a lot more bitter than HT. It's still a fantastic beer, but I prefer the style of HT and SOS a little more.

 

I'll feel lucky when I get some tax relief from this miserably run state

 

It will fall from grace the moment I finally get to try one. At that point I will recognize that chasing top beers is not my thing and I go into the basement and fold the laundry.

 

Focal > Heady all day. And east coast > west coast. I was predisposed to think west coast IPAs were the tops, until I tried Focal and Swish and Dinner and Fiddle and Trillium and TH.

 

I agree with what you're saying, the shine has faded for me on this beast. But there is no distro on it, and many haven't had the chance yet so until Heady distro and production increase (maybe with the Stowe facility) it shall remain #1. Now, I don't know if you heard but the Alchemist had to remove all markings from their trucks/vans because so many were following them and causing safety concerns! Talk about hype!

 

If KBBS holds its 4.82 R Ave, then it will tie Head at 4.73 with 550 votes. It will overtake Heady with 620 votes at 4.74 if it holds. Problem is that KBBS is so limited and Headys sheer number of votes and high R Ave will make it very difficult to be overtaken.

 

I was a VT tourist last week, had HT twice (first at Prohibition Pig the first night, second at the Mad Taco the next afternoon) and bought a couple 4 packs. It was worth every bit of praise I'd read - a redefining beer for IIPAs. Got Sip of Sunshine also, and found it to be tremendous but not as revelatory. However, HT was not the best beer I had on my trip, nor was HT the beer I worked hardest to get.

No, I drank far more HF, and drove 2 hrs. to get some from the source. While there, I had Everett, and found it to be the best beer I ever had. But that beer is not in the top 50 here - clocking in at 65 on the Top 250.

 

I remember when Storm King was #1...

 

Looks like the pending change to only use ratings with reviews could end up shaking up the top. Will be interesting to see what happens to the entire top 250...

 

haven't had Heady yet but Other Half Cans have made me a big believer in IPA's

 

The ranking system is flawed. There is no way that a beer which has 440+ reviews should ever get ahead of a beer that has been rated 10,800+ times. It's just plain wrong. In fact, ranking should be weighted such that for every thousand reviews, a beer gets a slight numerical bump...in which case, Pliny the Elder would quite possibly be the true #1 beer on the site.

 

Heady Topper is a fantastic beer, don't think there is any doubt about that. Is it number one? Who knows that up to personal preference.

 

I live about 50 minutes from Waterbury on the VT/NH border, and I love HT and think it deserves its ranking. That being said, I rarely drink it. It works great for trading though. At the bars that serve HT I usually choose a HF IPA option, or second fiddle, or SofS. These prove much harder for me to get retail.

 

Heady isn't even the best beer from The Alchemist anymore IMO, and definitely not the best IPA from Vermont (Abner, Double/Triple Sunshine, possibly Double Citra...).

 

I agree that a 10k vote is far more significant than the 500 votes for TG's contender, but I have trouble seeing why Pliny's 12k is that much more credible than HT's 10k. Given HT's significant rating advantage, the bump per 1,000 would have to be more than I think would be justified to move Pliny up. Obviously, you have your own preferences, illustrated by your profile pic, but I cannot see it in the numbers.

 

I was kind of kidding...but also kind of not kidding. I'm a beer drinker not a math genius but to me, HT does not have a "significant rating advantage" as you put it. The numbers show Pliny the Elder at 0.07 "Weighted Rank" behind HT yet Pliny has 1,730 more reviews than HT. So depending upon where the bar is set and if there was a bump given for every 1,000 reviews (or every 500 reviews) the gap would close and the list of the top 250 beers overall would change dramatically.

 

I take your point. At this level, though, seems like 0.07 is a lot.