The Alchemist Cannery - Waterbury

No Longer In Business

This place should be retired (for now). There’s enough signs on the property that state you can’t visit anymore.

Can’t believe I never threw in my rating. When I was there in 2013, I got on line, pickwed up my 2 cases allowed for HT, got my wife to do the same. All the while, I got samples of HT they poured on draught. I also bought an Alchemist T Shirt. The "tour" takes all of 2 minutes. I asked the ladies at the counter about Alchemist’s other beers, since I had a real interest in those, and they looked at me as if I had 3 heads. My understanding now is that they don’t even sell HT out of the cannery anymore. Not a bad experience, only because I got 4 cases of HT. Only because of that. BTW, at $75 a case, HT is a real value here.

You go here to pick up your slab of Heady Topper (hoping that it’s not sold out). It’s simple and efficient. There’s a two-minute self-guided tour, a modest gift shop, a tap to try a few ounce sample of Heady. You pay, you pack up, you go.

Stopped here on a recent NE auto tour, hoping to get a couple of four packs before the ran out. As it has been said, a no nonsense place, only one beer, plenty of schwag to buy if you are inclined. Nice interpretive panels telling the story of the place. Glad I stopped. for what it is, they do a good job, just need to upgrade that restroom situation.

When I visited: Late May 2013. What I bought: Three four-packs of Heady Topper and one t-shirt. What I liked: Pungent smell of hops smacks you in the face as you walk in the door, quirky signs explain the history of the beer and brewery, well-organized retail store has lots of Alchemist schwag, love the Heady Topper photo cut-out by the front door. What I disliked: The woman at the cash till was thoroughly uninterested in talking beer, even though we said we’re from Toronto and I bought quite a bit of stuff. Oh well. Would I go back? For their world class DIPA, yes. And it’d be fun to do a brewery tour providing the lady who served us wasn’t running it. :) Overall Rating: 68

Stopped by to get my cans of Heady Topper. Brewery "tour" was ordinary. Employees at the counter were super nice. Selection was limited, but they had what I had come to get. Price was great. It was worth the stop.

Nice place from the inside and out. Lots of Heady memorabilia for sale. Was basically just an in and out stop on my list though. Got there 5 minutes after opening and was only a handful of people in front of me. Grabbed my fresh heady and left. Really cool artsy paintings on the inside and employees were very nice.

Endroit visité le vendredi 19 juillet vers 14h00. Ambiance: Petit local où on peut voir la brasserie, prendre un échantillon et acheter de la bières et des souvenirs. Service: Sec et rapide, mais efficace. Sélection: Heady Topper, quoi d’autre ! (219e rating d’établissement)

I know that they are super in demand but sold out All I could do is too look at the empty place.

What’s there to say? This place is nothing but a stop to buy arguably the best bottled (canned) pale ale on the planet, rivaled only by Pliny and Zombie Dust. It’s also cheap as shit, all things considered. But, I mean, a place rating? This place sucks. It’s buy a case and go home.