If you have followed the world of beer, you know two things about a brew with the odd name of Heady Topper, from a company called The Alchemist in Vermont. One is that it has an unbelievably positive reputation. Both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer have recently crowned it as the best of all possible beers. Among BA's readers, it is the #1 overall beer; at RB, it has a perfect 100 score.

The other thing beer people know about Heady Topper is that it is almost impossible to buy outside the state of Vermont. Most of its sales are from its own cannery, in Waterbury Middlebury half an hour from Burlington. The Alchemist company posts a carefully specified list of where Heady Topper is authorized for sale, mostly in the northern half of the state. Even for those who buy direct at the cannery, there is a one-case-per-customer limit. You can see where this is going -- and begin to imagine why the view below, of case upon case of Heady Topper, is for many beer enthusiasts the equivalent of seeing Walter White with his big barrels full of money in the recent episodes of Breaking Bad.

Inside, where the beer becomes itself

http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/beer-porn-the-alchemist-cannery/279812/

Wow. So shiny, Geege. So shiny.

Speaking of beer and Breaking Bad:

http://pandawhale.com/post/22241/and-now-breaking-bad-also-has-its-own-beer

Schraderbrau?

That label is reminiscent of a better time.