Top 3 MA Breweries

Trillium > Tree House > Jack's Abby for me.

I would say TH gets as much hype as Trillium for their hop forward beers. In fact, I would say TH has a more aggressive approach to hop forward beers than Trillium does. Trillium always has saisons, sours, porters and stouts on tap and in bottles whereas TH usually has all hop forward beers and one stout on.

 

In my very humble opinion it is Trillium and Tree House a cut above all the others, and then a second tier of a number of very good breweries, including Wormtown, Jack's, Night Shift, and some of the tenant brewers. And before it starts, allow me to make a plea that we not try to rank or compare Tree House and Trillium. They are both absolutely fantastic, and we Bay State-ers are lucky to have access to both.

I think I respectfully disagree with this concern. Given the limitations of their space I actually think Trillium does a good job of providing some seasonally-appropriate alternatives to heavily-hopped IPAs. I think it just might be the case that they move a lot more of the IPAs, whereas customers don't buy as much of the other options, so they don't devote as much tank and shelf space to them. I guess what I am saying is that Trillium limits their IPA alternatives because that is what we, the consumer, have dictated. Personally, I have Trillium Imperial stout, Belgian strong dark ale and barrel-aged Belgian dubbel in my fridge right now, and I've been meaning to make it over to grab some of these wheat ales they've been rolling out. I expect that with the Canton brewery we will see further style diversification.

 

I think that Tree House stands apart from the other two in that I've never had a beer from them that wasn't really exceptional. If you randomly pulled one beer from each of their line ups, I think tree house would be the most likely home run.

That said, Jacks Abby's whole business model is really incredible. I think they've been admirably thoughtful in the manner and rate of their expansion, and have never compromised quality in the least, which I'm sure is quite challenging given their scale relative to the other two. (I think their production is orders of magnitude higher, isn't it?

I haven't had enough trillium to argue much on my first point here though.

 

I would say Trillium > Tree House > Night Shift. Of course, you'll need caveat that I haven't had any Jack Abby's yet (although I have a 6 of Hoponius Union that I just picked up Wed in Boston). Also, I mainly drink IPA/DIPA's. Have had one of Trilliums darker beer though.

 

What factors are we taking into account here? Just beer quality? Talent of the brewers? Accessibility? Price? My answers would change if we were to focus each attribute individually.

Something funny I noticed in myself when discussing favorite/top brewers…I generally like to take into account the brewer’s ability to brew a wide range of styles well. However, if we were talking another other business, like a restaurant, I don’t give a crap about that…in fact I generally don’t like restaurants that have a huge menu covering all kinds of food. I say focus on a handful of dishes and nail them. That really goes for just about any business…but I notice I don’t follow that rule when thinking of my favorite breweries. That’s why I generally rate places like CBC so high (if talking MA only).

 

I haven't had enough Tree House to really judge them, but I wold say I wasn't impressed by Julius or Green. For me it probably goes Trillium, Jack's Abby, and CBC. My issue with CBC is that Flower Child cans are great, but the other stuff they distribute feels like a step down from the beers served at the brewpub, which can be phenomenal. After that I'd go Notch, Clown Shoes, and Ipswich. Ipswich really breaks down to a handful of beers: IPA, Route 101, and Oatmeal Stout. I think all 3 are near perfect for their respective styles, their original IPA being of the American interpretation of an English IPA variety.

 

Tree House and Trillium are a toss up for me. Excited to have either of them. Probably Night Shift slides in at 3. I had some of the hoppy Enlightenment ales recently, particularly the Hoffman which was top notch too.

 

Overall Beer quality: TH > CBC/JA tied > TR
Best hoppy beers: TH > TR > JA
Accessibility: JA by a mile
JA is also tops for me in other categories like 'Fun Factor' (if that makes any sense) and 'Brewery I drink most'
Favorite underdog brewery: Enlightenment (Mystic close 2nd)

Just a note on Enlightenment - Ben makes some of the best beers anywhere, period. Seriously. They're really F'ing good. But format & price are big drawbacks.

 

I agree with this. Tree House is great but I feel Trillium has more great beers.

 

And they're more accessible.

 

I would second this. Ben's saisons are awesome. His IPAs or Double Pale Ales have been great as well (Hofmann and Kesey). Kosmos is a terrific straight up stout. I would agree on price and format. I wish the saisons were more favorably priced.

 

I'd have to go Trillium > Tree House > Jack's Abby

Honorable mentions are CBC, Clown Shoes & Mystic.

I'm generally not a huge Night Shift fan (while some of their beers are great, others shouldn't even see production - sometimes it seems that they sell everything they make regardless of whether or not it is actually good).

I see Mystic/CBC climbing in the rankings though once they get their new brew house up and running and start pumping out some more wild ales!

 

It all depends on what factors you think are relevant. Taste, obviously, but that depends on what styles you like, and I think most people would agree that price and originality are important factors as well. To me, plopping down a brewery in the center of Boston that makes (admittedly good) hoppy beers is like shooting fish in a barrel. Jack's Abby, on the other hand, is making all lagers at a price point that should be embarrassing to places like Trillium and has great hoppy (Hoponius Union) and malty (Framinghammer variants) beers. No contest for me on this one.

 

Treehouse > Trillium > Night Shift > Jacks Abby > Mystic

 

For me Tree House, CBC and Trillium are the top tier. JA, Enlightenment, Ipswich, Notch and a handful of others are the second tier. Night Shift is the wild card. When they are good they are great and when they miss they miss big. They've put out some beers I deeply love and also some of the worst beers I've ever had. Then there is the third tier and there is some good beer (all the way down to the worst of MA) to be had there too but just not relevant to the conversation.

 

Mystic has a lot of potential. Hopefully with this new CBC collab, the two of them can get a broader range of beers out to distribution. I love Renaud, but if they can broaden their lineup I see Jolly Pumpkin-like things in their future.