The flood hit on a Sunday night and that Tuesday was our first canning run for Heady Topper. We had been running that pub for nine years when Tropical Storm Irene completely wiped us out. And, really, I feel like we haven’t lifted our heads and looked around since. We opened the pub November 29, 2003, a Friday night, and Saturday morning we found out we were having a baby. If I wasn’t brewing, I was a bellman at nice hotels because I liked the cash tips.īut we were never as happy as we were in Vermont… But then it was six years of working and planning and saving and doing everything we could to open our own pub. We got married and started moving all over the place - Wyoming, Idaho, Boston.
He got me started, and when I took over the head brewer position there in ’95, that’s when Jen and I met. I graduated, saved enough money to buy a used car and moved to Vermont to search out Greg Noonan, a late friend of mine that started the Vermont Pub and Brewery. At that point, I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do, so I went for it. I was doing a research project on the brewing industry and realized it was something I actually could turn into a career. John: I discovered craft beer back in college in the early ‘90s. This is the oral history of Heady Topper.
And, last but not even a little bit least, there’s John Kimmich, co-owner and brewer at the Alchemist in Waterbury, Vt.
