Tree House Brewing (2023)

That's insulting. Their magic wand would surely be hand-carved bloodwood from the lush, elven forests of New Zealand, with custom maple and ebony inlays and a lupulin-infused poplar center, manufactured to the tightest tolerances available in modern-day wanding.

 

Ok, I’ve been a Treehouse fan since the beginning. From waiting 2 hours for a growler fill of Julius to pretty much an unlimited amount of a staggering variety of beer, seltzer, coffee and liquor. It’s been very cool to watch this company grow and I feel that they are still making (mostly) exceptional beers. I love the order/pickup system, it’s super efficient. I can literally do a hit and run on my lunch break. However, I find this system completely tedious and unnecessary for draft pours. I saw the confusion and subsequent bottleneck as people walked in and tried to order a beer in Tewksbury yesterday. I’m sure it’s no big deal to most of the younger people out there, but some of the older folks might be a little put off by this. Is this an outlier or is this becoming the norm? Am I just yelling at clouds?

 

are you saying it's not "focused"?

I keed, I keed....

Its not the norm. The draft process at TH is way overcomplicated and nothing I've ever heard of or experienced at any other brewery. Wristband lines, pre-order your tickets, bar lines, oh my! There's no reason there can't be POS available right at the bar. That said, it's what they've come up with to enforce a 2 pour limit per person, or whatever the limit du jour is, to the greatest extent practicable. It is what it is and it's the TH experience. No way to tell if it's a liability insurance thing or if there's another reason. It's the opposite of the norm.

 

FWIW clearing customs in some foreign countries was more straight forward than ordering a draft at Tree House.

 

Has the price of Very Gggreennn dropped? It’s 21.20, helluva price

 

Nahh, let’s keep the Disney adults away from Tree House

 

Thanks for the recommendation here.

Not sure what hops are used with this one, but to me it's kinda like Haze with English Yeast. Bubblegum for sure but grainy like cereal. Very good.

 

Here’s an idea. Add 4 more bars in Charlton, along with bar seats + a separate line for people not sitting at the bar. Allow people to order + pay at the bar. Add a third floor / deck space, two bars on that floor could be closed during the winter, they won’t be needed. I know the logistics of the tap setup would be a nightmare, buuuuuttt, the consumer experience would benefit

 

Some of these beers have been available for a long time (they still have Warm your bones, Winter Warmer available). At what point do they start to heavily discount these or even take them off the menu? Some of the lagers are getting pretty old too (Quaint), and although, not as fragile as hazies, can still go bad after several months.

 

I picked up cans of Nomad last week, canned 12/12/22. I think it’s holding up fantastically.

 

A dark lager would definitely hold up better. Just trying to get an idea of what the limit should be for how long a beer sits. I know they're refridgerated and probably can last a while. But let's say a beer is still for sale after being canned a year ago, with no mention of it on the purchase page. Someone coming from far away who doesn't follow too close will be buying year old beer without knowing. Is that fair? Not sure. This is what forums are for. Discussions

 

The info on when these beers were canned is out there if you want it. I am not a big social media guy but on IG the Treehouse Line Updates posts the new releases and God Bless whoever keeps up the TH release history spreadsheet (below).
I was there Monday and bought 6 different beers all canned May 2023.
You could have gone there today and purchased 6 different beers canned in the last 24 hours. There is no other Brewery releasing the variety and freshness availability that Treehouse offers.

Tree House Release History Since Late 2020 - Google Drive

 

Yeah Nomad definitely holds up. I had a 12/12/22 can last week and it was great. That being said…

I agree with everything here

 

Online text will make this read very blunt, so don't take it the wrong way:

The average Joe isn't going to find this google drive page. Nor will they join a fringe social media group to see what releases happened when, NOR will they scroll through the endless twitter feed to tally up what days what beers were released. We are a VERY niche group in the grand scheme of beer. Most people just don't care that much.

 

I really appreciate Tree House and think their beer is a cut above just about everything else that's available out there. And I give them a ton of credit for brewing as many lagers, etc. as they do.

But I would definitely be a little grumpy about getting 4+ month old beer when I drive to them to pick it up. The no-distro model definitely comes with the assumption that we'll be getting fresh product when we make the trip.

Hopefully, they'll get the sales expectations dialed in a little better as their classic styles program evolves, and they'll be able to size their batches accordingly so beer doesn't linger as long.

But until that happens, I think they should either pull or discount beer that's more than a couple months old (or more than a month, if it's an IPA).

 

But fretting about packaging dates, especially for non-IPA styles, is also decidedly not an Average Joe behavior either. Most people just don't care that much.

 

Ha, you’d be pulling half the ipa’s in a store it a month was the target for ipas

 

In my experience, one month old IPAs from Tree House (hell even 2 month old IPAs) are superior to most other fresh IPAs I have had from nearly every other brewery (yes, there are some exceptions).
If stored properly I imagine most people would find little discernible difference in quality in their IPAs anywhere from 1 to 10 weeks old.

 

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'niche' at will to old ladies

 

I know there's at least one or two package store employees/owners on here. What are the average dates on european lagers in your stores? (the ones that arent brewed in St Louis by Inbev). I'm guessing at least 4 months?

I do agree that beer should be fresher straight from the brewery but it probably also takes Tree House a long time to sell even 60bbl batch of a lager brand, esp when they also have 10 other lager brands on at the same time. I have no idea what their batch size is but that's not what their core customer is looking for