New England Beer Scene

For me, HF is still a step ahead because of their diversity. Broadly categorizing across hoppy, dark, funky, HF has exemplary beers in each. Even less common styles like barleywine or brown ale they have among the best in the world.

Trillium and Tree House may get to that point, but outside of the hoppy stuff neither one has produced as many examples of other styles in my opinion - although most of what they have made is pretty damn close to HF.

 

I'd say right now HF is one of, if not the, best brewer on the planet. The fact that we can get their stuff in MA (short drive to Armsby Abbey in Worcester) means we don't have to travel to the Northeast Kingdom to try Hill's beers any more.

I'd say that Treehouse, Trillium, Night Shift et al are consistently producing top notch beers that are at the very least close to what's coming out of VT and in some cases every bit as good.

 

I believe all the breweries OP mentioned are releasing world class beer, it gets highly subjective after that.

Tree House are producing the exact style of hoppy beers that *I* prefer, even though I'm a big fan of a lot of the stuff coming out of VT, Trillium, Night Shift & others.

I'd prefer to focus on just how damn spoiled we are right now with all the world class beer available throughout New England.

 

Amen!!

 

At the top level we are talking percentage of percentage points. I prefer the Alchemist hoppy beers over all the mentioned breweries hoppy offerings. HF, Treehouse, and Trillium are up there but still the Alchemist is my #1 preference. HF is making beers in other styles that there just aren't any equivilent to coming out of MA.

 

I think that this is the distinction that needs to be made. If we're just comparing hoppy beers, which Trillium and Tree House do very well, I would say that they're on par with the Vermonters. Beyond that is where the differences really show. Hill Farmstead's portfolio is just incredible and you have fantastic examples of style. There's a lot more breadth and I'm not sure you can say that Shaun has a "wheelhouse" because he's doing it all at an exceedingly high level. Trillium and Tree House are only going to get bigger and it will be interesting to see how the breadth of their portfolios grows as their capacity grows. However, right now, I think that it's unfair to compare them to Hill.

 

Do they really need to be compared? All the above breweries make world class beer. That's enough. When I'm in Vermont, I drink the VT beers. When I'm in Mass, I drink the Mass beers. Whichever's brewery's beer is in my glass at the time, I fall in love with all over again. Once you've had them all enough times, it really doesn't matter to you any more. As long as the beer you're drinking is top quality, who cares what's in the next state =p. Each of the breweries make beer that can stand up to almost all others on their own. That's good enough for me.

 

I've never thought of HF's portfolio as "diverse". They make a lot of different beers but the majority of them are focused in three main styles.

 

You really don't though. If 6 breweries brewed the exact same recipe with the same ingredients, you could pick one better than the others. But each is brewing different beer with different recipes and they're all amazing in their own right. If I were at a bar and they were all on draft, I'd probably pick whichever one I had the least access to, just out of availability sake. I suppose if you went style by style I could start picking some favorites for certain offerings. But overall, I don't think any of them are "better" than the others. And I'm not one to candy coat things and give every kid a trophy ^^. I just enjoy all mentioned breweries equally.

 

Oh, but Trillium offers the best Pale Ale IMO =p.

 

This is a discussion board and some people enjoy going back and forth over things like that, much in the same way a sport board might talk about who is greater Jordan/Kareem/Lebron, blah blah blah

 

FWIW, my trips to Vermont have become very infrequent since the emergence of Tree House and Trillium. No need to go that far anymore.

 

Listen New York, you're not part of New England! Make a world class beer and you can have your say ! JK

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/302/41422/

 

This.

*cracks open can of Green Diamonds, squints eyes*

 

TH and Trillium IPA/IIPA/PAs in my opinion are on par if not better than the corresponding beers from HF, HT, & Lawsons.

I'll lump Wormtown and Nightshift in there as well to a certain degree.

They are all great and the fact that we can get them in New England is outstanding. The fact that it takes some effort (some more than others) to get any of these beers keeps them all fresh to me. I'll never drink a Heady and say " This is terrible I wish I was drinking a Julius" or vice versa.

 

Hmm I'm going to be in New York this weeekend. Should I try to get this? And is it available? I'll be driving to Englewood NJ from NH so will pass through NY on the way and will be willing to go about a half hour drive out of my way. Also, Will be driving up long island the next day.

 

They're due to have another can release (exact beers haven't been announced yet) this weekend. That could be hassle depending on when you're coming through. You could also check on Beermenus for places to grab a growler along your route, as several places north of NYC get kegs for growlers regularly. Most of their hoppy offerings are definitely worthwhile.