August Trip: The Final Leg

Tree House entrance.

By Carl

When you were a kid, having a tree house in your backyard basically meant you were royalty. Having a house in a tree gave you and your friends a perfect sanctuary away from the real world. Being able to hide out in your own space was liberating and allowed you to be anything you wanted to be.

Fast forward to adulthood where your imagination is gone and the real world is now even more terrifying and confusing than you ever thought possible as a child. Just when you think there's no way out...enter Tree House Brewing Company!

That's right. The final leg of our big August trip was in Monson, Mass., which is home to one of the best breweries New England, maybe even the whole country, has to offer. Tree House has emerged as one of the superpowers of the beer world, and they have done it at what seems like a record pace.

Tree House Julius. The staple!

Since getting in the beer game, I don't know if I have seen a brewery blow up as fast as these guys have. I remember not too long ago when Mark mentioned something to me about a beer called Julius. I had never heard of it before, but it has since become one of the most sought after IPAs in the game.

Julius, Green, Haze, Alter Ego and so many more are what Tree House has been built on. The offerings just keep piling up at an astounding rate. Just a couple months back, it was huge whenever they released Julius cans. Now they seem to be available almost every week at the brewery. The growth is easy to see and it is incredible.

This was the first time I visited Tree House, and while it was disappointing that they only had Haze at a six can per person limit for the day, just being able to see the process was rewarding.

These guys seem to have everything down to a science now. Some places may get too big for their own good at times, but this certainly has not happened to Tree House. They know what to expect each and every day, which is a huge line of people that tends to start hours before opening. Growlers are taken in early on to be filled while everyone waits in line to grab their allotted cans. The lines run quickly and smoothly, which is all anyone can ask for when waiting for beer!

Tree House growler lineup.

Tree House used to be open Thursday through Saturday, but due to the continuous growth, they are now open Wednesdays at noon as well.

I went back about a month ago when they had Julius, Haze and Lights On available for cans. I also snagged growlers of Double Shot (stout) and Curiosity Twenty Two (IPA) to make the trip even more fulfilling.

I can only imagine what the future holds for this brewery. In my opinion, the sky is the limit and there's no telling how big Tree House can get. I have even heard rumors about them distributing to a couple bars. I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors, but the fact of the matter is the word is out and thensome.

It took a while for all of these legs to be written up, but I'm glad we were able to tell our story and happy you could come along for the ride with us. Keep an eye out for much more, as our beer adventures are just getting started!

The final August Trip haul!

P.S. I will be in Connecticut this week and plan on returning to Tree House on Thursday, Nov. 12 with Mark. Hopefully there will be a bunch of offerings available!

P.P.S If you want an expert opinion on Tree House, ask Mark. The kid is virtually there every week, something I'm incredibly jealous about!

August Trip: Shipping Down to Boston

By Carl

I apologize to all for the big gap in posts. You see, the world of beer is so vast and time consuming, so we at "Life's Brewtal" were out there making the most of it and quite hones
tly just lost track! Anyway, let's try and finish what we started.

The Vermont part of our trip was finally — and by finally I mean sadly — over, but we still had one more day of fun ahead of us. After recharging our batteries a bit with a good night's sleep in Burlington, it was back in the car once again as we started our southward trek of a little more than three hours down to Boston. Now, growing up in Connecticut, I have never been the biggest Boston guy (mainly due to the sports teams), but there are a couple
beer gems within the city that are certainly making names for themselves.

Our first of two stops in Boston was at Trillium, which was not especially easy to find. After parking in a small lot about a half mile up Congress St., we made our way back to Trillium, which is about as small of an operation as you will ever find. Don't be fooled, however. This place is home to some incredible beer, and trust me, the word has already gotten out!

This was a simple extraction mission as you cannot sit down and have a pint here. No, we were out of there in five minutes, but not before making our purchases consisting of Congress Street (IPA), Sleeper Street (IPA and still my favorite from them), Double Dry Hopped Fort Point (Pale Ale) and Fort Point (Pale Ale). I also have to make note of my pint glass I bought, which I have since woefully broken. Not to worry, as Mark returned to Trillium a couple weeks back and got me another one!

Upon our conclusion, it was back to, you guessed it, the car. Only our next destination was not too far away; or so we thought. What was supposed to be a 20-minute drive turned into about 45 minutes due to some heavy traffic. Whatever the case, Night Shift Brewing was up next.

The 87, Santilli, Whirlpool, One Hop This Time

I have to admit, I did not know a lot about these guys at the start of the trip and we actually never had them on our itinerary, but with a last-second decision we wound up at Night Shift and boy am I glad we did.

This place is slowly, but surely, putting itself on the map. Since making this trip, I have seen more and more about Night Shift all over the place. With a plethora of options on tap, we each decided to sit down for a flight. I opted to go with Whirlpool (Pale Ale and my favorite of the four), One Hop This Time: Ella (IPA), Santilli (IPA) and The 87 (IPA). This surprised me, as IPAs are my go-to, but the Whirlpool was quite tasty.

Things were starting to get a little depressing as the Night Shift stint came to a close, with just one more stop scheduled on our marathon trip. However, this was perhaps the part I was looking forward to most. One last stop in Massachusetts before heading back to Connecticut. It was time for one of the fastest growing breweries with some of the most sought-after beers
in the country: Tree House Brewing Company!

August Trip: An End to a Long First Day

By Carl

So the brewery tour had come and gone on day one, but the drinking of beer was far from over. Upon leaving Waterbury, we finally jumped on the highway and headed about a half hour northwest to Burlington (the home of the University of Vermont in case any of you were wondering). This would be our final destination for the day as we arrived at our hotel around 7 p.m.

Now at this point we already had a trunk full of beer, most of which needed to remain cold overnight, and we did not have nearly enough cooler space. So what were we to do? Well that decision was made a few days back as we knew we were going to have to sacrifice the amount of coolers we brought in order to maximize our trunk space. I know you guys think we are just some dumb beer geeks, but I like to think we are at least kinda smart!

Anyhow, we first grabbed our bags and the pair of coolers to bring up to the room. After dropping those off, we headed back down to the car to grab our cases of heady and Hill Farmstead bottles among others. We walked through the lobby and to the elevator like nobody was watching. I mean let's be honest, Vermont hotels have to see this kind of stuff all the time, no?

And so began our detailed (or not so detailed) plan. Are you ready, because here it comes! 1) Beer goes in the bathtub. 2) Three crazies grab pretty much every last bit of ice in two different ice vendors on separate floors. 3) Ice goes in bath tub with beer. 4) Top it all off with more ice later that night once the vendors produce more frozen water.

Now I didn't mean to spend three paragraphs explaining that brilliant plan to all of you, but here we are. So upon finishing the old beer in the bathtub plan, we had to fight the serious urge to take a nap in order to hit the town. If I shut my eyes then and there, I was going to be out for the count.

So out we went to downtown Burlington, which has a different, yet awesome, nightlife. Eric and I had already been here once before, and being too tired to come up with new and exciting ideas, we decided to hit up the only two places we went last time. I wasn't complaining, as they were fun before and they were fun again.

Farmhouse Tap and Grill was packed, and I couldn't believe it being it was a Thursday night in the beginning of August. We opted to head over to El Cortijo, which has the same ownership as Farmhouse, and figured we would come back later to see if it emptied out at all.

El Cortijo, a smaller joint, was also slammed. While we waited for a table, a waitress got us each a Grassroots Legitimacy, still one of my favorite IPAs to this day. We finished those up and told the waitress we were going to take off and head back over to Farmhouse.

Not knowing this the first time around, Farmhouse had a little beer garden in the back, so we put our names in and headed out back for some more brews. In the grand scheme of things, I probably should've tried a couple different beers while I was back there, but dammit if they didn't have Focal Banger here as well! My white whale had returned to me once again and I was prepared to drink as much of it as possible.

About 45 minutes and two Focals later, our table was ready. Another hour went by and I had downed another Focal (if you're keeping score at home, that's three of them and four in one day ie: I was in heaven). After eating some of the hottest wings I've ever had, I capped the night off with a Hill Farmstead Excursions #3, which is just one of the smoothest IPAs I've ever had.

As the night wound to a close, perhaps our greatest acquisition of the trip happened. I am somewhat sworn to secrecy about the logistics of how we came across this miracle acquisition, but needless to say we wound up in our room with two 4-packs of Focal and that led to a happy Carl!

And that was it. The long, first day of our trip had come to a close. We settled our baby focals into bed (the bathtub) with their brothers and sisters, tucked them all in with another blanket of ice and went to bed.

Oh but we aren't done yet folks! Day two was quite an entertaining one as well. We were prepped to be up bright and early because soon enough we would be off to Boston and Trillium Brewing Company!

Best of the Week: September 6th-12th

Man, we just had a crazy month of August. Many of the brews we were lucky to find have been outlined in our posts of the trip. Time to get back to it and start fresh with September. Here are our top beers from 9/6 - 9/12:

Carl: Focal Banger (The Alchemist): The combo of Mosaic and Citra hops got me again! This guy seriously makes a run for the best beer I ever had. I need to get my hands on some more of this stuff as soon as possible. Alchemist does it again! Rating: 5/5. Honorable Mentions: Mastermind (Fiddlehead), Last Snow (Funky Buddha), Sosus (Toppling Goliath), and Green Street (Trillium).

Eric: Last Snow (Funky Buddha) and Sosus (Toppling Goliath): I cant decide between these two! Both were simply outstanding. The Last Snow is a coconut-flavored porter that really impressed me. On the other hand, this batch of Sosus, a double IPA, is better than any other TG offering I've had, including King Sue. These two beers are definitely worthy of my best of the week! Rating: 5/5. Honorable Mentions: Julius (Treehouse), Green Diamonds (Other Half), Haze (Treehouse) and Double Dry Hopped Fort Point Ale (Trillium).

Mark: In Perpetuity (Treehouse): This beer simply shocked me. With all the wonderful offerings from Treehouse, I thought I had seen their best. But this American IPA ranks right up there with Julius and Green. Glad I was able to get eight cans! This is one that I'll continue to enjoy for the weeks to come! Rating: 5/5. Honorable Mention: Eureka with Mosaic (Treehouse), Headroom (Trillium), and Galaxy Dry Hopped Fort Point Ale (Trillium).

See you next week. Cheers!

August Trip: Prohibition Pig Lives Up to Hype

Hill Farmstead's Abner at Prohibition Pig.

By Carl

I had looked forward to every single part of our early-August beer excursion, but I may have been most excited for what lied ahead at leg No. 4. With Lost Nation behind us, another half-hour drive separated us and Prohibition Pig in Waterbury. I had heard tales of this place, and their Instagram account filled with mouth-watering pictures of different menu items they offered left a lot to be desired. We had been starving ourselves all day for this and it was finally time to stuff our faces!

The anticipation grew stronger as this was probably one of the toughest drives we made all trip. The combination of slow drivers in front of us and even more winding backroads through the Vermont wilderness saw us take about 45 minutes to arrive. It also didn't help that Mark and I had serious calls of nature that needed to be answered!

Nonetheless, we finally landed in Waterbury and quickly relieved ourselves before walking into Pro Pig just after it opened at 4 p.m. Now just because I was looking forward to chowing down for a feast that would hopefully give Thanksgiving dinner a run for its money, this trip was about beer and boy was there another incredible selection available to us!

The Pro Pig.

While I was tempted to go after some of the brews Pro Pig makes in house (and I hear nothing but good things), I decided to go with a pair of Hill Farmstead options, starting with Abner, which I also got a growler of from the source earlier in the day. This double IPA was slightly disappointing to me as I had built it up in my head for so long, but it can still give any double a run for its money.

I later went back to an old reliable, Edward, which was the first Hill Farmstead beer I'd ever had during my last trip to Vermont in early April. While pale ales are not usually my cup of tea, this guy is as smooth and flavorful as they come.

As I noted, if we had more time and did not have to do anymore traveling, I would've attempted to try every one of Pro Pig's brews, which I intend to do next time around!

Anyway, while this is not a food blog, I have to give a shoutout to Pro Pig for it's incredible cuisine, which certainly did not disappoint. All-in-all, yet another successful leg of our trip, but it was not over yet!

Alchemist's Focal Banger.

A little research during our meal had us scrambling to finish as we had tracked down my personal white whale: The Alchemist's Focal Banger, which was right across the street at Cork Wine Bar & Market.

I was ecstatic. I had been searching for this beer for what seemed like forever, but it was about to go down! Upon finishing up at Pro Pig, we ventured across the street and ordered three Focals at this quaint market.

What we did not know was this would not be our last Focals of the night, but I savored it as if it would be. And I'll tell you what, it makes the case for the best beer I've ever had. If you've read some of my past posts, you know I am a sucker for the mixture of Mosaic and Citra hops, and sure enough this masterpiece had both. My white whale had finally been slayed, putting the finishing touches on a great visit to Waterbury.

On our way back to the car, we stopped back into Pro Pig one more time to grab a 4-pack of snifter glasses for $20. I have a strong collection of glasses right now, but this snifter is one of my favorites.

Just like that it was back in the car around 5:30 p.m. and we were ready for the fifth and final leg of the day. We were on our way to Burlington and got ourselves prepared for some of the exciting nightlife it provides!

Goooooooood Morning, Treehouse!

Good Morning growler. 

By Mark

Tree House Brewing Company in Monson, MA is doing some incredible things and they are really starting to get recognized for them. We've referenced Tree House in many of our previous posts, and at this point, us lucky ones have been fortunate enough to try the likes of Julius, Green, Haze and many of their other superb offerings. The small operation in southern Massachusetts has become one of the biggest names in the beer industry and it simply adds to the already unbelievable options New England has to offer.

While I've had a good majority of what Tree House has to offer, one in particular had always eluded me. I've always wondered where and when the infamous Good Morning would arrive on the scene, and then it happened a few weeks ago with a silent release. I made the 30-minute drive from central Connecticut as soon as I had the chance. I was lucky enough to get there on a Saturday evening just before they closed, which was very fortunate for me as I was able to bypass the early rush. With a 750mL growler fill as the limit, I wouldn't have enough to share with the guys. They contemplated making the four-hour drive from Philadelphia, but their schedules wouldn't allow it.

Anyway, by the time I was able to sample my Good Morning growler, the word was already out and it had since skyrocketed all the way to the No. 1 spot on the Beer Advocate rankings. Rave reviews were pouring out all over different craft-beer platforms and it became very evident that Tree House had once again hit a home run!

At 8.4 percent ABV, this imperial stout is the best I've tried to date. Maple syrup, coffee and chocolate with a burnt marshmallow sensation is the easiest way I can sum up this pitch-black offering, which also possesses a tan head and similar lacing throughout. The coffee notes at the finish are absolutely sensational and make this brew unlike anything else I've ever had.

After enjoying this thing as much as I did, I drove back to the brewery again the following Wednesday with Good Morning still on tap to go along with cans of Julius and Alter Ego available! Yes, it's true. Tree House was offering three of their most prolific beers all in one evening, and the devout followers were responding.

There was such an overwhelming response that the brewery opened its doors an hour early and by the time I left three hours later, they had processed over 300 growler fills!

With three different beers in the Beer Advocate top-30 (Good Morning No. 1, Julius No. 6, Green No. 27), Tree House continues to amaze and develop an even larger following. If you haven't had a chance to try this east-coast gem, what better time is there than now?

August Trip: Lost Nation Anything But Lost

Lost Nation Brewing Company.

By Carl

So Hill Farmstead was done, yet the day, and the trip, was just getting started. We found ourselves back in the car earlier than expected, around 1:30 p.m., and were on our way to Lost Nation Brewing Company about 45 minutes away in Morristown, VT. 

More and more backroads, mainly surrounded by trees and rivers with an occasional house here and there, separated us from our next destination. We arrived in Morristown, yet Lost Nation began to live up to its name. 

Our GPS took us down some wrong road, and alas we were slightly LOST (see, get it?). Not to worry, however, as I thankfully had reception on my cell phone. I proceeded to type the address in and about 10 minutes later we located the brewery tucked away in a small corner of this town. 

With our next destination, Prohibition Pig in Waterbury, not opening until 4 p.m., we had some time to kill, and this seemed to be the perfect place to do it. With indoor and outdoor seating available, we opted to take in the crisp Vermont air in the beer garden area and it was time for our first flight of the trip. 

With six beers on tap and a flight of beer consisting of six samples, it was only natural for each of us to order each beer they had: Gose (which they are well known for), Vermont Pilsner, Rustic Ale, Mosaic IPA, Lost Galaxy IPA and The Wind (a dry-hopped Gose made with Citra hops and grapefruit). I enjoyed The Wind more than the classic Gose, but my favorite had to be the Mosaic IPA. Considering Mosaic and Citra hops are my two favorites, these two brews tickled my fancy for sure. 

From left to right: Gose, Vermont Pilsner, Rustic Ale, Mosaic IPA, Lost Galaxy IPA, The Wind.

Upon completing our flights and a couple sides of chips (don't get me wrong, we were hungry, but with Prohibition Pig up next, we didn't want to ruin our appetites), we took to the inside quickly to grab some stuff to go. All three of us opted to get 4-packs of the Mosaic, with Eric also snagging a piece of glassware. 

Another leg of the journey had come and gone in a flash once again, but it was back in the car for us at 3:30 for another half-hour trip to Waterbury. I had been waiting for this stop for quite some time, and it was finally about to become a reality as the famous Prohibition Pig was next up on the list for leg No. 4!