At Sunday evening’s Emmy Awards, the celebrity-studded audience in LA’s Nokia Theater watched Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney take home golden statues and Elton John perform a tribute to Liberace. Backstage, another drama was unfolding — there wasn’t enough Heady Topper to go around.

Alchemist co-owner Jen Kimmich says that two cases of their signature brew made it to the Emmys, but halfway through the show, supply was running thin. “We had multiple requests for more,” wrote Mark Gonzalez, dressing room coordinator for the awards show. “Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the show, put in a request almost every hour.”

Despite what was probably mad prep for the show, Gonzalez managed to treat his cargo properly. “The Heady Topper was placed in refrigerators the second we received them and were not placed in talent rooms until requested to ensure they stayed cold,” he wrote.

It’s been a high-flying few days for the double IPA. Last week, The Atlantic’s James Fallows praised Heady Topper in a blog post on that magazine’s site, before carting home a case for himself.

Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era drinking and is the author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England, published by History Press in 2014.

11 replies on “Heady Topper Runs Out At The Emmy Awards”

  5. You didn’t get a good can. I assure you, as a card carrying beer snob and a lover of IPAs, Heady is the finest IPA I’ve had the pleasure of drinking.
    We’re blessed in Vermont…between Heady Topper and Hill Farmstead, we’re pretty damned fortunate.

  8. and you can only get one case at a time at the brewery…time for another trip to Vermont with my cute wife !!

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