Tree House (Charlton) IPA quality is disappointing

Brought me right back to the 90's and high school

 

Just checking in here to laugh at Monson being called the original location.

 

Which one

 

Damn dude, you owned those people....

 

Do we have a thread on shelf Pilsners? German or domestic? Do you feel as though the post-2000 Weihenstephaner has held up? Just curious...and trying to change the subject.

 

I would sub to a shelf Pilsner thread so hard. Someone whos not lazy do it, then contribute a bunch so I can lurk.

 

Done. The future is wide open...

 

Brimfield growler bros, assemble!

 

Was that Damien’s garage?

 

I’m just shocked at how many people consider their memories of what something tasted to be so super accurate. Your memory is not that good. The human experiences of how things taste are influenced by how you feel and where you are. I suspect that is why Monson TreeHouse is so revered by people. Someone mentioned there was a “cat piss and cigarettes “ batch of Julius that came out of Monson.

Add in the negative effects sinus infections, illness, oral lesions (burned tongue etc) can have on your taste experience needs to be recognized as well.

Someone already pointed out the variable flavor profiles of the ingredients from year to year that could have an effect on the taste of a certain brew. Just like different vintages in the wine world.

If you want a beer that tastes the same from every batch that’s brewed you need to buy from the big beer companies and not craft brewers. I for one will continue to visit THBC and wait in line just for the chance to taste what comes next.

 

cat piss and cigarettes lol

 

The thing that has to be understood is that it's extremely difficult to make definitive statements about batch consistency or changes in a beer over time because you're dealing with multiple moving targets. Three factors:

1. The beer is changing. The ingredients are organic and only so consistent, plus brewers tweak stuff all the time (especially when they're Nate).

2. You are changing. Our taste perception is changing all the time, due to experience, aging, sickness, environmental factors, etc.

3. Human memory sucks. Look it up, it just does.

BONUS ROUND: Beer is also not preservable by any practical methods. If you want to know how Maker's Mark has changed in the last 30 years, just find a well preserved 1988 bottle. If you want to know how SNPA has changed in the same time period... kick rocks. It's all gone and it can never be recreated. Same goes for Julius from two years ago. In fact, the same goes for Julius made two WEEKS ago, because while I'm sure there's still plenty of that kicking around, it's a beer that evolves rapidly in the can. It doesn't taste like it did two weeks ago anymore.

There's very little firm ground to stand on when making these kind of claims. If it's a situation like Trillium switching over to Canton, where a large number of people noticed a dramatic difference in those first few batches, then it's safe to say something is off. When one dude isn't having quite the same experience with Tree House he was a few weeks ago? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I dunno. Since most people posting in this thread seem to be fanboys I’m going to play devils advocate here. Is it possible that the beer coming out of Charlton isn’t as good as Monson? This whole argument that there’s no way a person could remember a beer in fine enough detail to compare against the same one that they’re drinking now sounds a little too fanboy to me. I ask, using your argument, how can you be so confident that the beers out of Charlton taste similar enough to beers out of Monson if YOU can’t remember in fine enough detail what it used to taste like?

 

My point is there are many variables involved in the taste of anything. The ingredients can vary in taste depending on the source, the conditions in which they are grown, how they are handled after they are harvested. Craft beer will inevitably be affected by these various forces beyond their control. These variables affect all craft brewers. There will be differences year to year and batch to batch just like in the wine world. If you are expecting the same product in every can/growler/crowler/keg year after year you will not find in in craft beer.

 

I have no idea what single factor could change between the two buildings that would result in all beers now tasting worse. I don't think you have any idea either. Monson wasn't magical.

 

100% agree with you, but most people on here are just arguing that there’s no way you could remember how good Monson was vs Charlton. I think that argument is baseless.

For what it’s worth, I’m not sure what I believe, but I think the beer I had from Monson was more flavorful than Charlton.

 

Scale. It’s a proven fact that beers do not scale at Charlton levels without a lot of trial and error and essentially the recipe changing significantly to account for the changes.

 

They brewed Monson-sized batches for months before gradually scaling up. If you think that it's totally impossible to brew their beers in larger batches than I guess you can point to this. I wouldn't do so myself.

 

The scaling is the hard part. Replicating Monson at 60bbls is not hard. Going from 60bbls to 240bbls and producing the same beer is not an easy task.

I dunno. The latest batch of Julius is meh, but Sssappp is out of this world good.

 

So were early Charlton batches good? And now recent Charlton batches are bad?