And your faithful blogspondent visited
Tree House Brewing, yet another strong signal of this fact, a week ago out in Monson, MA. Here are the pix:
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| Photo 1: Tree House is now located on Koran Farm in Monson, MA. |
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Photo 2: The brews are dispensed from a small tasting and swag shed across from the silo.
This was the line at around 10:30 am, with opening at 11 am. |
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| Photo 3: The varieties available differ, I believe each weekend. |
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| Photo 4: Inside the shed, dispensing at the far end. |
Nationally, beer consumption continues to fluctuate narrowly in volume from year to year, but craft brews such as Tree House make up a greater share of that sideways volume every year, like clockwork. I hesitate to read too much into this particular piece of data in terms of broader trends. But it is now clear that at least in the beer market, Americans have firmly opted for quality over quantity. Why drink gallons of mass produced, low-quality, shipped-from-God-knows-where and brewed-God-knows-when beer, no matter how cheap, if you can enjoy a couple or three very tasty, high-quality brews that reflect great craft and thoughtfulness in their preparation and were made, just a couple of days ago, by the guys doling them out to you over the counter on a beautiful Saturday morning? Life is just too short to drink Beer X because of its amusing ad campaigns. I would further suggest that this is of a piece with the movement toward locally-grown food and, dare we say it, living in more walkable settings that trade larger homes for better connectivity. And, at least as far as beer goes, we even have poor, maligned Jimmy Carter to thank for part of it since he
signed the law that legalized homebrewing on the federal level (45 years after Prohibition had been repealed) and there appears to be little question that homebrewing as a movement led to the craft beer industry we know today.
One final note in the interest of full disclosure: Tree House has a personal connection to this blog since Mrs. RTUF went to high school with Dean Rohan, one of the owners. That said, they brew excellent beer and have been on a meteoric trajectory, starting only a couple of years ago in a garage in next door Brimfield, now relocated to the farm in Monson, and soon to be in a brand new, larger building near the silo that will allow for greater production and on-premises consumption in addition to just tastings. Take a visit if you're in the area. It's worth the trip.
Blog Post No. 2014-9
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