Tree House Brewing Company (May 2015)

Wormtown lets you exchange as well as washes the old growlers.

 

Having worked in a bottle shop that takes returns for many years, Im not at all interested in used growlers. Im also not sure why a small brewery would want to incur the cost of having a proper washing station and staff to do the washing.

 

So i might have some time on my way home from VT to stop at Tree House on a thursday night, but most likely only for cans. How long would i expect to wait for just cans around opening to about 5? I figure growlers i'm looking at 2+ hours which i wouldn't have.

 

They open at 5:00 so you have a little bit of a line to start. I was there last Thursday and was 51st in line when doors opened and had cans in 20 minutes.

 

Cool thats what i wanna hear, thank you!

 

What's the longest the can line has been on any given opening ? I waited about 30 mins one time (I got there at 5:15 and left around 5:45 -- for the Lights On 12 per person release in March). I think they have gotten more efficient since then as well...

 

Really depends what's on though--to have been 51st in line this past Thursday you would have had to have been there more than two hours before the door opened, with a massive amount of people lined up at open. This Thursday shouldn't be as bad without Julius, but I'm still expecting a pretty serious line since there should only be a few cases of Green up for grabs.

Haven't noticed the line getting more efficient; it's tough to increase efficiency when the bottleneck is really the Square CC processing ipad dongle, which can be temperamental and much slower than cash even when operating perfectly. Not a big deal since you really have to accept cards these days and most would still be waiting for their growler fills anyways, though it would be pretty rad to have a cash only option or at least another person taking funds during the first hour or so of big can days, they'd absolutely burn right through those early lines.

 

They also could potentially offer the ability to pre-pay for cans while you are in line before open, and give you a "receipt" of some sort where you can then go in and just pick up what you paid for when the line opens.

I don't think this is necessary, just a random thought I had. If you want to consider ways to expedite the process, this would be pretty efficient. There could definitely be a security issue for those paying with cash though.

 

Right I got there at 2:40 that day to be 51st in line. Just giving an idea on how the line moved. 20 minutes to get through 50+ people in the can line isn't bad.

 

On 'Vagabond Thursday' I got there just over an hour before open (3:50pm) and was ~160th in line. It truly varies based on what has been announced.

 

Are can limits still varied based upon what's available and current inventory?

 

Yes they set a limit. Check their twitter feed or someone usually posts it on here. They adjust limit based on availability. Last time Julius was in cans they started with a 6 can limit on Saturday. On the following Thursday it was cut to 4 cans to spread the wealth since they were down to about 10 cases left.

 

Thanks! I haven't been out there since they were in Brimfield and want to make it worth while.

 

They did the same for Sap on Saturday. They lowered it from 8pp to 6pp just prior to opening the doors.

 

Considering a trip up on Friday, June 5th. Let's say they have a standard line up of a couple IPAs, no cans and no heavy hitters such as Julius. What kind of a wait can I anticipate?

 

It seems like lately Fridays have been on the quieter side. Usually a little busy when they open then by like 6:30-7 wait time is down to like 30 minutes. That is if like you said no big release or Julius. If anything like that happens then all bets are off. They usually have cans everyday now but the later you go in the day the less wait for them you have. I have gone in on a Friday at like 7:30 to get cans and was out 5 minutes later.

 

How big would you say the demand is for a beer like Double Shot?

 

The latest one lasted at least 4 weekends. Think I got it on 4/11 and they still had some on 5/2

 

ummmm... awesome. Guess I have to leave work for the day now!

TreeHouse Brewing Co ‏@TreeHouseBrewCo 5m5 minutes ago

Opening today from noon to eight. *CAN SALES ONLY*. ~200 cases of Julius will be available - 8 pp.

 

" no sap, 3 cases of green only. 2 pp" from Twitter