Tree House Brewing Cape Cod (Boston, Canton: sales, real estate, to rent)

[Beachcomber4]

Real estate prices and home sales on Cape Cod have been unprecedented. That includes this area of Town Neck where Tree House Brewing is making a major investment to bring their beer and culture to Sandwich in the midst of a pandemic. THoughts. I know their business model but little about what drives the brand devotion. Is it that good and will it sustain? I thought breweries were a fad but it seems they can and will sustain.


https://treehousebrew.com/sandwich

[Cantabridgienne]

Their western MA location is insanely popular. I think this is a very smart move, especially since it will be an easy stop for people vacationing on the Cape.

[timberline742]

No idea how breweries could be considered a fad, but whatever.


They are that good. They have seemed to have been able to adapt to non Monson well water strongly enough at their newest location (which is what, building four I believe, with first 3 in Monson). I suspect they will adapt well to this new water supply. It's the long term hop contracts that may be restrictive, but with their emerging power and the drop out of some breweries, maybe that is less of an issue now.

[CaseyB]

My son-in-law loves them. 2 years ago, all he wanted for Christmas was a gift certificate there.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by Cantabridgienne

Their western MA location is insanely popular. I think this is a very smart move, especially since it will be an easy stop for people vacationing on the Cape.

Their main location is now in Charlton (1H west of Boston), not western MA. Is the tap room in Monson even still open?

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber4

Real estate prices and home sales on Cape Cod have been unprecedented. That includes this area of Town Neck where Tree House Brewing is making a major investment to bring their beer and culture to Sandwich in the midst of a pandemic. THoughts. I know their business model but little about what drives the brand devotion. Is it that good and will it sustain? I thought breweries were a fad but it seems they can and will sustain.


https://treehousebrew.com/sandwich

They're that good. They don't distribute (you can only get cans and drafts by going to the brewery), and they have name recognition around the world for producing some of the best IPAs available (I know a lot of people "don't like IPAs," but Tree House IPAs taste as similar to large brewery IPAs as McDonald's hamburgers taste to Wagyu Beef), and their other beers (especially stouts) are similarly renowned. They'll kill it on the Cape. Not only will people be stopping in for drafts and cans to bring to the beach, they'll be buying cases to bring home and share/sell locally. If it's anything like their Charlton location, great efforts will be taken to ensure that it's an incredibly nice and welcoming space.

In the off season, they should see plenty of patronage from people living on the Cape and in SE Mass. I mean, people are already trekking to the Charlton location and lining up in droves year round, why wouldn't they also do it in a more popular area?

FWIW - they started in Monson (Western MA), opened the sprawling Charlton location after fast and massive success. They're also opening another brewery in the Berkshires (Deerfield): https://www.masslive.com/business/20...achusetts.html

Breweries were never a "fad." We're at a point where there's market saturation weeding out some of the more mediocre operations, but people recognize the good ones and they generally succeed. Just look at Trillium - they were a tiny operation filling bottles and growlers in Fort Point before opening a large brewery in Canton, an expanded high end spot in Fort Point, a beer garden on the Greenway, and a new spot in Fenway. Some even do exceptionally well in the middle of nowhere (see Hill Farmstead) because they're good enough that people will make it a destination. If it's good, people will come. Tree House is one of the best. It's not at all dissimilar to wine - people have made wineries destinations forever. In other parts of the world (Germany and Belgium in particular), local breweries have been destinations for centuries. If anything, we're late to the party.

[BostonMike7]

They are actually opening up two new locations, the Cape, and Deerfield out in W. Mass.

At this point, TreeHouse's reputation is national, and there are repeated requests for people to "mule" beer from TH and ship out to other locations around the country. They have several beers rated in the top 100 nationally on various websites.

They have a fanbase that is nuts about them, almost even rabid. I have no doubt their Cape Location will do well as it's a very nice property with one hell of a view.

I personally love their beer and rank it as my own personal #1 brewery to buy beer from. I make the trip to Charlton every couple of months. I usually have no problem finding 4-5 coworkers/friends who also want to place an order as well so it usually subsidized my 3.5 hour roundtrip.

I remember waiting in like for 45min pre-pandemic, but even now every time I've gone for pickup, I've had to wait 20-40mins. I'll even chose a day/time when I think volume should be low and still wait in line in my car for pickup.

There are several breweries sustaining and even thriving during the pandemic once they found ways to keep getting product to customers. Trillium is another that is doing well, by first offering Home Delivery to certain areas around Metro Boston and now offering UPS 1-day shipping to all parts of MA.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by timberline742

No idea how breweries could be considered a fad, but whatever.


They are that good. They have seemed to have been able to adapt to non Monson well water strongly enough at their newest location (which is what, building four I believe, with first 3 in Monson). I suspect they will adapt well to this new water supply. It's the long term hop contracts that may be restrictive, but with their emerging power and the drop out of some breweries, maybe that is less of an issue now.

This is how they could be considered a fad.

Some craft breweries with major followings have sold out to AB InBev over the last five years. Ashville, arguably one of the best beer cities in the country was up in arms when Wicked Weed sold out. The founding owners reason for doing so was telling.

The thing people love about craft breweries is the uniqueness. They are becoming ubiquitous and markets saturated. Which is often the kiss of death.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber4

This is how they could be considered a fad.

Some craft breweries with major followings have sold out to AB InBev over the last five years. Ashville, arguably one of the best beer cities in the country was up in arms when Wicked Weed sold out. The founding owners reason for doing so was telling.

The thing people love about craft breweries is the uniqueness. They are becoming ubiquitous and markets saturated. Which is often the kiss of death.

Only the kiss of death if you are middling or bad.



So some businesses sold out. And? Small businesses routinely sell out to big. Not news.


If its a fad, it is a "fad" that has been around since before my grandfather's time. Some of the breweries I went to when I lived in Wisconsin have been around since before prohibition (they paused, wink wink, for that.) 30+ years ago when I lived in VT there were craft breweries.



If that is a "fad", it is one heck of a "fad".

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by lrfox

They're that good. They don't distribute (you can only get cans and drafts by going to the brewery), and they have name recognition around the world for producing some of the best IPAs available (I know a lot of people "don't like IPAs," but Tree House IPAs taste as similar to large brewery IPAs as McDonald's hamburgers taste to Wagyu Beef), and their other beers (especially stouts) are similarly renowned. They'll kill it on the Cape. Not only will people be stopping in for drafts and cans to bring to the beach, they'll be buying cases to bring home and share/sell locally. If it's anything like their Charlton location, great efforts will be taken to ensure that it's an incredibly nice and welcoming space.

In the off season, they should see plenty of patronage from people living on the Cape and in SE Mass. I mean, people are already trekking to the Charlton location and lining up in droves year round, why wouldn't they also do it in a more popular area?

FWIW - they started in Monson (Western MA), opened the sprawling Charlton location after fast and massive success. They're also opening another brewery in the Berkshires (Deerfield): https://www.masslive.com/business/20...achusetts.html

Breweries were never a "fad." We're at a point where there's market saturation weeding out some of the more mediocre operations, but people recognize the good ones and they generally succeed. Just look at Trillium - they were a tiny operation filling bottles and growlers in Fort Point before opening a large brewery in Canton, an expanded high end spot in Fort Point, a beer garden on the Greenway, and a new spot in Fenway. Some even do exceptionally well in the middle of nowhere (see Hill Farmstead) because they're good enough that people will make it a destination. If it's good, people will come. Tree House is one of the best. It's not at all dissimilar to wine - people have made wineries destinations forever. In other parts of the world (Germany and Belgium in particular), local breweries have been destinations for centuries. If anything, we're late to the party.

As always I appreciate your perspective. On a positive? note LOL I know I will have many more visitors with Tree House in town. It's a guarentee the kids will come home for the holidays. I've also considered what it could mean if I ever wanted to rent out my house. We purposely bought in a beach neighborhood thinking of ROI but this will make it even more attractive to a certain demographic and for longer than just the summer season.