Background – The Tree House Brewing Company
Home brewer Nate Lanier was gaining popularity with his friends and neighbors for his beer creations. It just so happens his friend Damien Goudreau bought a new house in Brimfield MA that included a barn. That barn ended up being Lanier’s home brewing base. The Tree House Brewing Company started with four friends—Nate Lanier, Damien Goudreau, Dean Rohan and Jonathan Weisbach—making homebrew in that Brimfield barn. They chose the name because of a grand tree house on the property near the brewery. In 2012 Tree House started with just a 20-gallon brewing system and later increased to a 5 barrel system. As demand increased and zoning troubles were endured, they expanded operations to an 11,000 sq. ft. facility in Monson, Massachusetts utilizing their first SBA loan.
The Tree House Brewing Company Monson facility was located in a small red barn overlooking the Pioneer Valley. Their popularity continued to expand and patrons lined up hours before opening. As a result, hey expanded on the farm in Monson, opening a much larger brewing facility on the same grounds and added canning. That did nothing but increase the demand, forcing them to open the new Charlton brewery.
In July 2017, Tree House Brewing Company opened its new heavily anticipated 55,000-square-foot brewery in Charlton. The new facility increased Tree House’s brewing capacity from 300 barrels per week, to up to 240 barrels per day. In addition to a larger brewery, the Charlton facility houses a retail shop where customers can purchase cans of Tree House beer. Drafts are only offered a handful of hours each week. The Charlton project was funded by a mix of SBA 504 for equipment and Mass Development’s Tax-Exempt Bonds program for the real estate.
In May 2018 they announced a 16,000 square feet expansion. Included is brewery operations, retail space, a number of open pergolas and landscaping. And maybe most importantly a second bar that will double the size of the existing bar to service customers inside and outside.
Experience
We arrived around opening time on a Friday in late October. To allow for the volume of people who visit, Tree House has an upper parking area and another lot down the hill. They provide a shuttle to bring people up to the brewery. As expected there were more than 100 people in line already. Half of us got in line and the other half looked around the facility. The line didn’t diminish in length in the hour and a half we were there. The number of people they had working the can line inside allowed for a fairly fast processing of beer orders. As you approach the door a staff member hands out pencils and order sheets which speeds up the process. We have a video of people coming and going on our Instagram feed.
The facility is huge with a large open area in the middle, canning line on one side, a bar opposite and great views of the vast amount of shiny new brewing equipment. They also have a retail area near the can purchasing line. The inside is finished in all wood with several tables available.
It was a great experience seeing the beautiful new facility. What would have made it a 10 out of 10 experience? The ability to purchase and drink a beer at the brewery. I understand at times you can do that. I asked someone about getting a beer and they indicated with long lines, all staff focus on filling beer sales as fast as possible. Now I know the thought of the owners after these last 6 years of incredible growth is probably making can sales as efficiently as possible and not running out of beer. I cannot imagine though that even one beer tender working the bar couldn’t sell many thousands of dollars’ worth of beer and even Tree House glasses per hour. I would even settle for a maximum of one beer.
Now for the beer, we purchased and enjoyed Bright with Galaxy, one of their DIPA’s with a hop resin nose, smooth palate, hazy & delicious, Doppelganger, juicy, hazy DIPA, Haze, a fruity, hoppy DIPA & Super Typhoon, another juicy DIPA with a dry finish. Tree House is also know for their Milk Stouts and we have two ready to drink.
It is unbelievable the following they garner and they do produce some of the best beer in the country. You should not miss checking this juggernaut out when in Massachusetts.
No nearby lodging noted. Tree House doesn’t offer food at this point but I believe they may have food trucks on Saturdays.
