Tree House NEIPA Dominance

^^^^ check out the trading forum.

 

There's definitely a bit of hivemind effect that happens with any product catergory. People rave about it, people go way out of their way to try it and then have subconsciously higher opinions of it, then it becomes even more highly regarded, and the ball keeps rolling. I haven't had anything from Treehouse so I can't speak to the quality personally, but friends with palates I trust have certainly confirmed that it's really great beer and definitely some top notch stuff in the haze game. So I'd imagine it's a mix of world class in the style, group think, and geography

 

Whenever I'm about to try a highly-regarded, highly-rated beer (e.g. BCBS, CBS, Heady Topper) I do my best to sample it with an open mind (trying not to be influenced by all the hype) and I definitely don't read the various reviews and ratings until after I've submitted my own.

 

I’d agree on Heady and HF beers as well, these have been around for a long time and they certainly are not fruity low bitter bombs. They’re hazy and non filtered, so you get the nice floaties in your beer. I’ve never had a Treehouse beer, I’ve had numerous Trilliums, some Veil. A well made bed is just that, the better examples are tremendous, the worst is dull average, and not really bad in any way, just not worth the premium price.

 

I've tried Heady Topper and am about to get my hands on a few Tree House offerings...can't wait...

 

Tree House brews beers that are closely tuned to the palate preferences of an enthusiastic subset of craft beer drinkers who dominate activity here and at Untappd. Tree House's high ratings thus at least to some degree accurately reflect the tastes of the people who choose to seek them out and rate them while employing hedonic scales.

Of course consumers of many products are susceptible to hype, and that's especially true of NEIPA devotees, as many are drawn to the style in the first place because they want to partake in the trendiest part of the craft beer scene. Indeed, the chance to engage in groupthink or participate in the hive mind seems to be an intrinsic if unspoken part of the appeal of these beers in many cases. A related phenomenon is that when people travel, queue up, trade, or pay high prices for beers, they often exaggerate to themselves their enjoyment so as retroactively to justify the high costs involved in obtaining them.

In the blind taste test results that I've seen, Tree House tends to do well but certainly doesn't dominate among NEIPAs.

 

As Todd noted, Tree House is really good at NEIPA's, and the hype it generates creates demand in trades. Its the FOMO that drives the number of ratings, and they are going to be high ratings because they are good offerings.

There are plenty of other really good examples of the style out there; but if your benchmark is the top rated expect those to be filled with highly traded beers.

 

Green is arguably the best NE-IPA I've had, but there are a lot of breweries brewing great NE-IPAs at this point. I think the whole Tree House mystique is largely because they've been nailing it since like 2012. At this point many breweries are nailing it. To TH's credit, they're still near the top of the pack.

 

It's probably relevant that Treehouse brews more than 50K barrels of beer a year and still sells all of it out of their own back door with zero distribution in a way that's usually the province of much smaller operations. I think that kind of "brewery only" mistique combined with the capacity to actually pump out a shit ton of beer puts them in a fairly unique position to hang on to their hype a lot longer than most places can once they expand.

 

I have discussed The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead vs. NEIPA a number of times in pst threads, for example:

“I used the term of "spectrum" in the below that I have posted numerous times in BA threads:

In my opinion the beers of The Alchemist (e.g., Heady Topper) are not so called 'NE' style IPAs. I have had Heady Topper on multiple occasions and those beer were neither turbid/murky/opaque or had a smooth/velvety mouthfeel. In past BA threads I discussed:

“In my eyes if West Coast style is one side of the rainbow and Trillium/Tree House is the other side, Alchemist/Lawson's/Hill Farmstead are the best of both worlds.”

This pretty much mirrors my thoughts on the ‘spectrum’ of American style IPAs. I enjoy drinking West Coast style IPAs (e.g., FW Union Jack) and I enjoy drinking the so called “NE” style IPAs but for me the ‘sweet spot’ are the hoppy beers of Hill Farmstead (and The Alchemist).”

Cheers!

@nc41

 

There’s nothing NEIPA in Heady, or any hoppy HF beer I’ve had. Abner and Susan were my favorites, and compared to the soft mouthfeel and soft bitter of NEIPAS Susan is searingly bitter, a real showcase of Citra. I’d also put Lawson beers in here as well, and Chinnookered is a favorite as well as Sunshine. It’s a rugged drive from here, but I’ve done it 3 times, an if I do it again a trip into a Boston is in order.

 

There is some group think to their other non IPAs

I think people rate their ipas so high that they have no real concept of how to rate a beer like eureka. Easily NOT the best blonde ale around. Their beers dominant all categories it appears.

They have many others too. Nothing about their IPAs wowed me on an aroma front. It’s 90% about that softer mouthfeel. I think it carries through to every style they do. It’s super appealing but shouldn’t be around with some styles. Yet those get rave reviews.

Anymore I have taken all reviews and ratings with a grain of salt

 

You have to take style in to account when looking at reviews and numbers. Ipas are not rated like say any Pils or Lager might be rated, I think in many cases hoppy beers are rated to ipas. World class ipas hit 100 score, mediocre ipas hit 90 or so, world class Pils might struggle to see 90. The scales slanted and as long as you use it like that it works.

 

Indeed I do. I would suggest to those that think Heady isn't extremely hazy that they haven't been drinking it often enough through the years to see it when it had floaties and was as thick as any NEIPA.. Plenty of Blush Hill batches were thick enough to be the poster for the style. And not at all strange to mention Hill Farmstead in the same breath, since he started out using a Kimmich kettle and Conan yeast for all his hoppy ales.

 

Does Treehouse/Trillium produce 'NEIPA' beers that vary in their turbidity from batch to batch? Shouldn't a 'NEIPA' be consistently murky?

Cheers!

 

It's funny how quickly this thread turned into the "what is and isn't a NEIPA" debate. cavedave, I'm not saying you are right or wrong with the above, but based on Kimmich's opinion on the NEIPA style, their appearance, and Heady's relationship to them, I bet he might take issue with your comparison. Don't shoot the messenger though.