Tree House (2021)

Last time I saw them doing that they had it in the large room down past the can pick up area.

 

I have not been on a Sunday, but there is an area to the back right where you pick up your can order. I think that is where they show the game(s).

 

Awesome, thanks! I've seen that back room, but never with the projector going. Good to know.

 

Just to follow up on this for anyone who may benefit...we did get pour tickets on Saturday, looked like they sold out within an hour or so...overall it was more crowded than I expected given the off season. For anyone going I would recommend getting there closer to 6pm than 5pm (when they first open) if you want to avoid the crowd. Not a huge line or anything but still a line to get in and get pours initially but quieted down after the initial rush. Not sure if it has been mentioned but you can also order cans outside of the normal online ordering while getting pours. They will put the order together and put it in the cooler for you to grab when you exit. You can order anything off the list for the day and may get lucky and find an extra of something that had supposedly run out. I got an extra 4 of Very Hazy even though it was no longer on the order page (there were several orders in the cooler from much earlier in the day so perhaps someone did not show to pick up their order..). Overall the staff is super friendly and helpful, outside of the woman who would not let a guy picking up an order use the restroom as that was for "people getting pours only"....

 

I'm planning my first visit since the pandemic started. What's the best way to know what's fresh nowadays?

 

Can you explain the pour tickets selling out? Sorry I’m trying to catch up. I’ve not been there recently on a busier day.

 

Not the most convenient answer, but Tree House Line Updates on FB or Instagram will always post what's new on a given day, so to know what's super fresh just look at the last 1-2 weeks of posts

 

Sorry if I was unclear but this was about reservations in Sandwich. They pull the link down when there are no longer reservations available.

 

I see some others answered already, but yeah it is set up by the coffee draft station. When I was there in Oct, they had the Pats on and also the Red Sox were on the day before during the ALCS. I felt most people were outside still because the weather was really nice

 

Including today, this is the 3rd time in a row I've arrived at the brewery in Charlton and not been able to pull up the draft list after it works fine at home. Each time the bartenders have said it's a regular occurrence and speculatively blamed it on not great cell service. Extra frustrating when the bartenders seem to not have a lot of knowledge about what's on tap either.

Today I asked if any of the find the limits beer were on tap, and the bartender responds no. Literally as he's responding I notice a tap behind him with with a "find the limit" tag on it. After he says no I ask for the written list. Ends up there's two different find the limits beers on. Whoops.

I get it, there's a bunch of beers on tap, staff turns over, etc etc. I just think with all of that and Tree House's move to make purchases almost entirely online, coupled with poor cell service...can we at least get some wifi in the building?

 

Super annoying, and I don't think it's service, either. It hasn't worked for me like the last 3 times I've been either. Everything else loads fine except the list? Weird. Anyways, secret tip - it's always updated on Untappd if you're willing to download the app.

 

Was there too and didn't have any issues with pulling stuff up, but I agree that it's kind of hard to rely on QR code after QR code.

Everyone at TH was super nice (the employees). I didn't even have to leave a card to grab a dolly. The people visiting not so mindful. It was super chill and there were so many empty tables but someone still chose to sit at our table. A guy in a Porsche driving the wrong way in the parking lot. A truck driving in the middle of the driveway that we had to honk at as we were coming the other way. You'd think such nice people would bring nicer, more considerate people to the brewery. Nope.

 

I agree that it is not a cell service issue but not sure what the heck the problem is....my buddy and I were there on Saturday, standing side by side in line and I could call up the draft list no issue and he could not, even though he deleted cookies and refreshed and everything. It's strange. Plus, lots of people were queuing up at the old school bar only to find that none of the new IPA's and such were served there. Would it hurt to put up a few TV type signs? I know it is not their style but literally anyone walking up out of the blue expecting a regular taproom experience would be totally lost.

 

This is what I've always chalked up the no wifi thing to be, but after visiting Woodstock recently I feel like a cool situation might be to let their satellite locations be kind of the ideal places while Charlton is a bit more practical, if that makes sense. Obviously just a suggestion, lots of info I don't know, it's their baby, etc,

 

It’s pretty simple, really. People want to know what’s on tap. So let them know what’s on tap.

 

Decided to answer my own question about the farm and took a ride just over the CT border this weekend. Overall, super glad I did.

The property is enormous and very scenic, nice place to walk around and some cool pond-adjacent seating. It was hilarious how empty and under the radar it is compared to Charlton - maybe 10 people total in the half hour I was there. Had a cider on tap and got a few bottles for home, the first of which I opened pretty much immediately: aged on yellow raspberries. The caveat in most initial reviews aside, "I'm not really a cider guy but," it was really good. Very nice fruit flavor and pretty unique. I can definitely see myself making a return trip, there was a lot more to try than I bought and I already regret not getting a 4 pack of the base cider just to see how it is.

I'm very, very interested in what the long term plan is. It's a very cool curiosity if it stays as is, selling ciders and occasionally eggs and farm shares and being more of a place for production than visitors. If that's the case I imagine they will at some point want to distribute the ciders and/or start selling them in Charlton, but I would respect the heck out of keeping things small.

But from a beer nerd perspective there is an enormous amount of untapped potential. One really needs to look no further than the homegrown fruit conditioning, the farm location, or the (frankly pretty fantastic) label art to see that they're about one degree away from hype brewery du jour. Give the exact same treatments as the bottles they have for sale now to a saison instead of cider and they are very quickly in a different ballpark. It'd be just the cool kind of obnoxious to start making HF-esque beers and only sell them at the Connecticut farm location lol. And maybe it would even make sense with how long anything non-IPA sits in Charlton unless they hype it as a tiny, tiny batch.

 

All the wifi/cell service problems would matter a lot less if they would just put up chalkboards, or even big TV screens, listing the beers on tap. It's clumsy anyway having everybody in line just staring at their phones. It leads to people running into each other, moving slowly, and other such problems. There's no reason they can't make the tap list publicly visible so people don't have to be buried in their tiny screens while waiting for pours.

 

Agree with all of that above. Just have an fng draft list posted in 1-2 places. Outside of that it’s your phone or luck out with one of then clip boards

 

I predict this happening in the future. It makes no sense to NOT have a display of up to date draft offerings at the very place you're going to get the draft. They used to have them on paper stuck to the walls/beams inside. This was much better than how it is now. Not to mention it's kind of a pain to find on the website. It's not hard, but not obvious, either. Especially to someone who might not be familiar or good with website navigation

 

What’s the verdict on their Big Peach/Bigger Peach?
Their draft issues of fruit-infused iPAs are FANTASTIC.

Are they finally canning same?