Really depends on what treehouse is offering that week and how much beer you'd like to take home. Limits and selection are generally much better at trillium. I actually prefer the stronger trillium offerings to Julius, green, haze etc but I'm almost certainly in the minority on that.

Well the correct answer is "why not both?"

Generally agree with AA. Lately, TH has been so crazy that Saturday pickings might be slim. But if they have double shot on for fills, Saturday can be a sweet day to get in and out for that. I think it's bonkers that people line up for hours for one 750mL of good morning, but double shot you can walk in during a dead time (late Friday, mid afternoon Saturday) and be in and out with two full sized growlers or 4 750s in 15 minutes.

I haven't had a ton of trillium, but I do prefer THs hoppy offerings. However, Trillium skimpy Sparrow pale ale is one of the best hoppy beers I've had and rivaled my favorite TH brews, at a fairly low abv no less.

By the way, they have a facility in Canton now, which is a pretty convenient location. And they'll definitely have more variety and availability than TH.

Also, if you're going through the Boston area, a quick stop in Everett at night shift to pick some cans and bottles isn't bad. Not quite the TH or Trillium class, but very good, and I give them credit for trying out some more experimental stuff like triple yeast Belgians and candied porters and whatnot, whereas Tree House pretty much sticks to hoppy beers and a couple of killer stouts, and that's it.

I agree it was very pepperminty but I love that flavor. Reminded me of Xmas. Might have given it 5 caps on Untapped app if I got to drink it in December.

Crazy deal, lol. I've bought one bomber and really couldn't resist chugging it, it was so good. They released it in 6packs as well so I definitely want to pick one up.

Ever since I had a Born Yesterday on tap after a Pliny on tap and it still tasted amazing, I've had a bad habit of trying one hoppy beer after another. So not too long ago, I had a Finestkind after a Born Yesterday, and I tasted a little bit of the too-malty taste I dislike in IPAs. But BY is only a yearly thing, so Finestkind is still a beer I will buy regularly. It has pretty much taken the place of Racer 5 for me, even though I will still get that on occasion.

Tried the SN Beer Camp Tropical IPA... I think I got jaded by my own expectations of 1. A really fruity, juicy IPA and 2. A Sierra Nevada IPA. So it ended up tasting like a milder Torpedo with some pretty mild "tropical" flavors. Seems like one where you have to drink close to the full 6pack before you really get an opinion.

Trillium I think will be more predictable. It's very unlikely you'll need to wait a long time and you'll have a solid idea what you can buy. The flip side is they don't have cans / it's more expensive so I like the formats you can buy at Treehouse much more. and it's a nicer place to visit than Trillium. but there is always some chance it's mobbed

note the new Canton location for Trillium is probably a lot more pleasant to visit than the alleyway in Boston. if you do that you could pair with a visit to Castle Island which is a new brewery right nearby which does sell pounders, and the beer is getting some good buzz. no pun intended

Thanks all for the replies, I need to be in southern NH early that afternoon so I think Trillium is the better spot. Possibly with a quick stop a Jacks Abby on the way in. Will be back in the summer and will be near Treehouse then.

Question for you guys: My favorite local brewery has done their first bottling and is selling them for $20 a pop. I have no clue if this is pricey for a 22 oz bourbon stout, but it sure seems like it. Of course, that may not stop me, just curious. Description is below....

'Our 1st Bottle Release: Bourbon Barreled NOCTURNAL STOUT!

Our beloved American stout has been doing easy time in a Buffalo Trace barrel, for your enjoyment!

Great pour now, probably epic in a year!

Just 200 22 oz. bottles available, limit of two per person.'

standardish pricing, especially for a small 200 bottle release.

Easily fits within the market pricing right now, but it kinda annoys me when smaller breweries come out of the gate charging this much. Some BA stouts are quite expensive, so its not as bad as the breweries that are charging loads to join a reserve society before even releasing a single beer publicly.

Yeah, it's funny how a beer like Older Viscosity has gone from ridiculously overpriced at ~$17/375ml to fairly standard.

Beer nerds,

Pretty happy this is a typical draft lineup at my GROCERY STORE:



Really like Xocoveza, and it was especially tasty on nitro.

Then I got a little carried away at the liquor store buying some beer for this weekend:

really like Bell's Cherry Stout. Their Java Stout is ok, but a little too thin.

Yeah, I bought a bunch of Modern Times rum barrel-aged Monster's Park. Aside from the coffee variant which was really phenomenal, they were good but not $30-a-bottle good, when you consider how good Black Tuesday is at the same price or BA Narwhal at a lower price. There does seem to be a tendency for smaller, unproven breweries to overprice their barrel aged stuff.

Finally was able to find Habernero sculpin and some other Ballast Point stuff. Will drink them all tonight. Passed up on Hopslam as I feel it has become a tad overrated. Really haven't enjoyed it that much in the past few years

Thx!

Would not recommend drinking this undiluted unless you really, really like spice/heat.

El d,

Sorry not sorry is tasty too. Scored four bottles of de Garde so today was a pretty great day for me. Also trying a rain rain rain from three magnets.

Armsby Abbey in Worcester has Hill Farmstead S&S #4 on tap. I really want to try that. Almost went tonight after work, but figured it'd be packed and I have a meeting at 9 am, and I have a fridge full of very good Massachusetts ipas already (night shift santilli and night shift the 87, and a bomber of one of the hop concept beers).

Tree House released an imperial version of alter ego. Based on king Julius and the small can limit I decided to pass, but I'm sure it's great. I'm all set with waiting in a line outside when it's 20 degrees out for a beer that is almost identical to the original, if it's anything like king Julius.

Oh yeah, I brewed that double ipa. Think it's likely too malty. Bottling the end of this week hopefully.

It costs more for smaller breweries to produce the beer to fill those barrels, and likely costs a good bit more to acquire those barrels in the first place.

Throw in hand bottling or small inefficient bottling lines, and you get higher prices.

Quality is usually lower as well. I'd take anything from Avery's barrel lineup over a random new, small hyped brewery. Barrel aging adds a whole bunch of new variables into the equation, many which are very hard to predict. Larger, more experienced barrel aging programs go to great lengths to control those variables as much as possible.

On a sad related note, one of our beer club projects, a RIS in an oak barrel went sour (not in a good way). It was set to come out of the barrel in the next month (would've been about a year), but something bad happened in the last few months so it's a dumper. The barrel was pushed too far though, it wasn't wet when they got it, it was from a large brewery that likely used it several times already.... it was treated properly otherwise, but that's a lot going against it.

Looking to get a fresh barrel soon, the 15g gin one I got has been awesome so far.

Santilli's great, haven't had the 87. Waiting outside at TH from now till the spring thaw will be miserable. Even on a nice-ish day it's the frozen ground that will get you. Tried everything last year including snowboard boots with thick socks and an hour on their frozen parking lot still had my feet freezing.

The 87 is maybe a little less sweet and a bit more resinous. Between cost, lower abv, and ease of acquiring, I prefer santilli. Just hit up their tap room with 2p2er Montecore on Tuesday. Cool space. Plenty of good beer.

Drinking their cape codder weisse sour now and really digging it. They're doing good stuff their.

This. As an example, most barrel brokers won't deal with small breweries. It took us a lot of time and effort to get even one broker to work with us on ordering used bourbon barrels.

Now we have 400 barrels and they want our business, but it was not easy at the start.

We also pay nearly double the cost for our grain vs. what even mid-size breweries pay. Bottling is tricky too, and I understand why many small breweries don't want to get involved with bottling.

Finally, breweries can expect to lose about 20% of barrel aged beer due to bad barrels, oxidation, or just general funk.

Yes, the prices can seem high, but most small brewers would make more money if they added wall to wall fermentation tanks vs. barrels. It's generally a labor of love, for the unique flavors that aging can produce.

I doubt they are completely ripping off the consumer with those high prices, and most of the time, these beers sell out in minutes so the pricing is fine overall. That said, I had a barrel-aged 22oz stout from a smaller brewery in Denver and it was only $15/bottle iirc and one of the best stouts I have had in awhile. There's so many of these breweries making barrel-aged offerings, I'd hope the prices would drop a bit with added competition, but the opposite seems to be happening.

Might be slow ponying here but I tried Stone Ruination 2.0 last night and it was ****. Sweet and stonefruity, in a DIPA you need more earthy/herbal hops to counter the malt sweetness imo. Big disappointment because I'm a big fan of Stone generally, their standard IPA is my fave IPA that is relatively commonly available here.