After Merc cleared my house of Heady Topper Monday night, the withdrawal symptoms started to set in. Sleeplessness, anxiety, nausea, shakiness, grinding of teeth… I knew something had to be done.

The closest place that I knew who had HT was Manchester Discount Beverage (it turns out that Bennington Beverage Outlet has it, too, but I didn’t find out about that until I got home last night and their inventory isn’t online like MDB, either). I sent them a quick FB message to make sure they had it in stock, and they assured me that they just picked up fresh Heady Topper on Thursday, and they even had some Celia Saison I’ve been meaning to give a shot.

Obviously I can’t go to a bottle shop and not grab some shit I haven’t had yet. So Me and The Mule set out after work yesterday to go stock up on whatever the hell else was worth picking up. The score:

• The Alchemist Heady Topper x infinity – obv
• The Alchemist Celia Saison x 2 – I think most gluten-free beers taste like assholes so maybe this one will change my mind
• Founders Old Curmudgeon x 2 – never had, but it’s Founders. C’mon.
• Founders Imperial Stout x 4 – both this and FOC will go well when I break open my CBS and do a Founders tasting night
• Maine Moe – haven’t had yet but all of Maine’s beers are phenom
• Maine Mean Old Tom – Elise should love this stout aged with vanilla beans
• Stone Vertical Epic 10.10.10 – I have 11.11.11 so when 12.12.12 comes out I’ll at least have a three year vertical. Not much but better than nothin’, right?
• Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon – Solid RIS that I just haven’t had yet
• Allagash FOUR – I could have swore I picked this up but maybe I shelved it because it didn’t fit budget. I don’t see it in the pic, I’ll have to check back later. After drinking that Allagash Curieux I’m pretty much full-mast any time I see Allagash as long as it doesn’t have brettanomyces added, which make beers taste like full-blown AIDS.

The rest not listed here was Merc’s. After we were accosted by a stereotypical dirty Vermont Hippie (“Camping? You must mean car camping. That’s almost like real camping.”) we left there and headed to Madison Brewing Company for some pretty uneventful beers and pretty uneventful venison and bison burgers. Took a few pics there, maybe I’ll post them later. Maybe not.