What is your favorite Beer? (Worcester, Cambridge: buying, living, restaurants)

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by lrfox

It's been 6 months or more since I've had anything from Tree House - I hope they haven't slipped.

They haven’t (at all). In fact, one of the new beers (Force of Will) released during the pandemic is among my favorites they have put out.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by lrfox

It's been 6 months or more since I've had anything from Tree House - I hope they haven't slipped. They've spent a fortune on equipment specifically to ensure quality and consistency. A lot of people have been ragging on Trillium for quality slips though. I had a few of their Mettle Alloy series over the past few months and they were garbage. But for the most part, I think they do an excellent job. I love the Cutting Tiles series, and I enjoy the lighthouse series too (Gay Head Light and Minot Light are the two best). My girlfriend is hooked on the Daily Servings. We both got our hands on the Trillium/Bissell Brothers collab last week which was good (and I think Bissell is wildly overrated). We're lucky to have them so close.

Bissell is good, not great. Swish when it first came out was a completely different beer than now. Foundations is another one that started with some good beers, and then they got worse. Most of the Portland breweries I find good, not great. Oxbow ok. Rising Tide big nope. Bunker nah. Allagash do some good aged stuff. Liquid Riot, nope. Lone Pine, Goodfire, Fore... etc. all middling. I'd take Foley Bros over any of them.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

They haven’t (at all). In fact, one of the new beers (Force of Will) released during the pandemic is among my favorites they have put out.

Good to know. I understand tastes changing, but considering the time, money, and effort that went into their system (specifically designed to ensure consistency) it'd be a shocker if they really started slipping.

Originally Posted by timberline742

Bissell is good, not great. Swish when it first came out was a completely different beer than now. Foundations is another one that started with some good beers, and then they got worse. Most of the Portland breweries I find good, not great. Oxbow ok. Rising Tide big nope. Bunker nah. Allagash do some good aged stuff. Liquid Riot, nope. Lone Pine, Goodfire, Fore... etc. all middling. I'd take Foley Bros over any of them.

Agreed. I think the biggest strength of the Portland scene is the concentration of good (but not great) places. It's a fun place to visit for beer because between the Industrial Way (Allagash Area) strip and the East End, there are nice brewery clusters for hopping. But none will blow anyone away. My favorite in Portland is probably Definitive followed by Goodfire - both good/not great in my opinion. Bissell is fine but I don't really get the hype (I see Bissell gear everywhere and people go nuts for Swish which is... fine), but I generally find more I like from Definitive than Bissell on any given day. Foundation's stock has gone WAY down in my book sadly. I used to really like them. But everything else ranges from meh (Shipyard, Rising Tide, Liquid Riot, etc.) to OK (Lone Pine, Battery Steele, Austin Street, Oxbow, etc.). Allagash is the OG of aged/funky stuff, so they get a pass, but others are doing similar things better now. There's nothing in Portland that is really on par with the best of VT or MA at this point.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Agreed. I think the biggest strength of the Portland scene is the concentration of good (but not great) places. It's a fun place to visit for beer because between the Industrial Way (Allagash Area) strip and the East End, there are nice brewery clusters for hopping. But none will blow anyone away. My favorite in Portland is probably Definitive followed by Goodfire - both good/not great in my opinion. Bissell is fine but I don't really get the hype (I see Bissell gear everywhere and people go nuts for Swish which is... fine), but I generally find more I like from Definitive than Bissell on any given day. Foundation's stock has gone WAY down in my book sadly. I used to really like them. But everything else ranges from meh (Shipyard, Rising Tide, Liquid Riot, etc.) to OK (Lone Pine, Battery Steele, Austin Street, Oxbow, etc.). Allagash is the OG of aged/funky stuff, so they get a pass, but others are doing similar things better now. There's nothing in Portland that is really on par with the best of VT or MA at this point.

I like Bissell. I feel I'm a bit spoiled by having fairly easy access to Trillium (I drive by the Canton location all the time) and Tree House (I have a friend who pre-COVID used to drive out there pretty regularly). Those breweries and HF are definitely a step ahead of the rest IMO and are perhaps some of the best beers you can buy on the planet. The Portland beer scene as you say is solid but not on the same level. However, when you pair that with the restaurant scene in Portland I think that makes it well worth a trip.

[porterhouse]

Tree House is a COVID friendly activity, easy contact free pickup (order online starting at 9:30a daily; show confirmation and ID through your window upon arrival; your order is brought out on a sanitized hand truck for loading into the trunk). If you can't make it to pick your order for any reason, it just gets refunded at the end of the day. It will be nice to be able to enjoy their grounds again but this works for now.

The only drawback is reduced flexibility. You can't currently build orders can by can from what is available. They have preset cases and mix packs available each day. I can generally find a mix that works for me, but occasionally there are brews I don'r prefer in my chosen pack. I just give those to grateful neighbors and friends. Currently, I recommend the Double Your Fun Mix Pack #2 (if you like double IPAs that is).

[Rickcin]

Guinness Stout

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

I like Bissell. I feel I'm a bit spoiled by having fairly easy access to Trillium (I drive by the Canton location all the time) and Tree House (I have a friend who pre-COVID used to drive out there pretty regularly). Those breweries and HF are definitely a step ahead of the rest IMO and are perhaps some of the best beers you can buy on the planet. The Portland beer scene as you say is solid but not on the same level. However, when you pair that with the restaurant scene in Portland I think that makes it well worth a trip.

I like Bissell too. I think my expectations may have been too high, especially with Trillium and Tree House nearby as well as easy access to Vermont via my girlfriend's family. I have seen Bissell gear everywhere for years and people on different Facebook groups seem to go nuts every time there's a Swish release (more so than releases for many better beers from other breweries), so I think I expected it to be on par with Tree House, Trillium, HF, etc. It wasn't. But I like to think I'm not such a huge snob that I can't acknowledge the fact that just because a brewery isn't as good as the best of the best, that doesn't make it bad. Bissell is good, not worthy of the hype I've seen, but definitely good (I've been 4 or 5 times happily). And Portland's absolutely worth a visit for the reasons you mention and more (I love visiting Portland).

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Tree House is a COVID friendly activity, easy contact free pickup (order online starting at 9:30a daily; show confirmation and ID through your window when arrived; your order is brought out on a sanitized hand truck for loading into the trunk). If you can't make it to pick your order for any reason, it just gets refunded at the end of the day. It will be nice to be able to enjoy their grounds again but this works for now.

The only drawback is reduced flexibility. You can't currently build there orders can by can from what is available. They have preset cases and mix packs available each day. I can generally find a mix that works for me, but occasionally there are brews I don'r prefer in my chosen pack. I just give those to grateful neighbors and friends. Currently, I recommend the Double Your Fun Mix Pack #2 (if you like double IPAs that is).

I'm glad they're doing it right (they've always nailed crowd/line management so I'm not surprised). But the 1-case minimum kills it for me. It's just the two of us, and we don't drink that much beer. We drink only on the weekends, and my max is about 2-3 16oz cans in a day. Especially when they're 7-9% Abv. We generally buy a four pack or two per person per week. If we do Tree House, we basically are committing to drinking only Tree House for 2 weeks or so. There are obviously worse things than that, but we do like to mix it up.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I'm glad they're doing it right (they've always nailed crowd/line management so I'm not surprised). But the 1-case minimum kills it for me. It's just the two of us, and we don't drink that much beer. We drink only on the weekends, and my max is about 2-3 16oz cans in a day. Especially when they're 7-9% Abv. We generally buy a four pack or two per person per week. If we do Tree House, we basically are committing to drinking only Tree House for 2 weeks or so. There are obviously worse things than that, but we do like to mix it up.

TreeHouse has always had a good system in place for managing the crowds. Even now, it's a great system for contact-less pickup. Haven't had an issue in the 3X I've gone there.


I usually buy 2 cases or so and then find that there's enough of a following of Tree House aficionados that I just offload my extras to peers and co-workers. They toss me a few bucks for the beer plus extra to cover my driving costs and time. I've done the same with Trillium as I don't like some of the offerings with their mixed packs. I'll usually buy 2 cases to get what I want, and then sell off what I don't want. I've always been able to cover my costs and even make enough to partially subsidize the beers I did want.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by lrfox

the 1-case minimum kills it for me

I hear you. I've been doing a lot of sharing. Friends who like that kind of beer have been very appreciative. Little things can go a long way during these times and it gives us an excuse to distantly connect while dropping a few beers on the porch. Also, I find that Treehouse beers age interestingly and well. They don't necessarily demand to be drank fresh.

[wolfgang239]

Not sure when they started but Trillium is doing deliveries and they even go to the Cape. I just had an order dropped off, curious how successful of a model it is but it must be worth it.