Jay About Fiddlehead HoDad beer

I am a sucker. Like a little kid I get taken in by shiny objects. Put some weird shit at the check out line and I am the sucker that buys it. This past weekend we were spending our kids' college fund on groceries at Healthy Living and I got sucked in again. There before my eyes was a shiny 4 pack of 16oz. cans. It looked just like Heady Toppers. Same size, same silver color, same tops, same too cool for school message about recycling the can. But these were not Toppers... they were the first canned offering from Fiddlehead Brewery in Shelburne.

First a little background on my history w/ Fiddlehead. When they first opened I was psyched, it was a brewery close to my house in a beautiful building w/ a flagship IPA. The early reality was that even though founder Matt Cohen was a friendly and knowledgeable guy the rest of the employees were morons who preferred chatting w/ friends about conditions on the mountain than responding to customers about the beer. Of course they knew very little about the beer or the process so that was fine. The attached pizza place had not opened. Frankly, the worst thing was that the beer was not good. It was flat and lacked flavor, kind of like the one note offerings often found at Long Trail. But they got better. Folino's opened and got geared up w/ pretty decent pizza. The IPA was refined and is now really a good standard IPA on tap around the area, often my go to when there is nothing special to try. The service in the brewery got better and now run pretty tight. They are making it happen, not killing it, but solid.

Background on the Alchemist and it's Heady Topper. It's great. It has always been great. I hate paying $14 for a 4 pack of 16oz beers but I often do. I like it quite a bit.

So, how about the new Fiddlehead cans? $19.95 for the 4 pack. Yikes! That is a pretty steep upcharge on one of the top tick markets out there, and for an unproven product. Needless to say the Toppers were sold out but there were plenty of HoDads available. I plowed ahead, the fool that I am. The beer? It is a coconut infused vanilla porter. Sounds gross but I am willing to be swayed. It is gross. It tastes like shitty soda and there is no way I would ever drink more than 1 (or any ever again after this 4 pack is gone). It cannot get better like the IPA, there is nothing good about it. There is also about 3% less alcohol per can so that is not comparable. I have had some hits and misses at Fiddlehead but the growlers are always pretty reasonable where these cans are a kick in the dick. It seemed like this place was heading in the right direction... hit some ice and has skidded into the ditch. If you want to overpay for a beer, get the Topper. Or even a more reasonably priced 16oz. Sierra Nevada Torpedo.