Construction is moving forward at Tree House Brewing Company’s future taproom, beer garden and retail outlet in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, despite opposition from a group of neighbors.
“Progress is brisk and we are looking forward to opening as soon as possible and welcoming neighbors and the public into our brewery in Sandwich,” Tree House co-founder and head brewer Nathan Lanier told Brewbound.
Charlton-headquartered Tree House announced a pair of new Massachusetts locations — in Sandwich and Deerfield in the western part of the state — in November, marking its first physical expansion beyond its central Massachusetts home.
Concerned over traffic congestion, hours of operation and the potential hindrance of water views, four couples who live near the Sandwich location enlisted the services of Boston-based attorney Daniel J. Bailey III, who filed an appeal with the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals last week to vacate Tree House’s building permit and urged the board to host a public hearing, according to The Sandwich Enterprise.
Bailey’s arguments against the location include that a taproom without a restaurant is not an approved use of the building, the location’s 17 parking spaces are “woefully inadequate” and Tree House’s proposal to shuttle customers to the location from an off-site parking lot is not permitted under the town’s zoning bylaw requiring all parking within 300 feet of the site, and that the location won’t be a brewery at all, but a “storage and sales facility for beer brewed in another facility,” the Enterprise reported.
The future Tree House location, which sits on nearly half an acre of waterfront property, was formerly home to now-shuttered restaurants the Drunken Seal and Horizons. Despite the project’s lack of a kitchen, Tree House plans to host food trucks to give patrons meal options.
Lanier told the Enterprise that the “process and all our interactions with town officials and locals have been a pleasure.”
During a public hearing earlier this month about Tree House’s liquor and entertainment licenses for the site, Lanier told residents that his beer company plans to control the number of cars visiting the site through timed curbside pickup reservations. The licenses, which Sandwich selectmen unanimously approved, allow Tree House to host 258 people inside the taproom and 240 in the beer garden. Tree House has signed a four-year lease for the 7,760 sq. ft. building for $25,000 per month, according to the Enterprise.
Sandwich planning director Ralph A. Vitacco said the board will schedule a public hearing in late May.
Tree House was founded in 2011 in central Massachusetts and opened its headquarters in Charlton in 2017. It famously does not distribute most of its products, and sold 49,880 barrels of beer from its own facility in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available from the Brewers Association (BA). Tree House is the largest taproom brewer by volume in the country according to BA data — and it’s not even close. The second largest taproom brewer by volume is fellow Massachusetts craft brewery Trillium Brewing, which sold 22,500 barrels in 2019, according to the BA.
Consumers often drive for hours to visit Tree House and queue up for just as long to purchase beer to-go. Those long lines in part motivated Tree House to open its planned second and third locations as ways of “relieving pressure on our main campus.”
When Tree House announced both new locations last fall, it said it planned to open each for to-go sales prior to opening their taprooms, but that has not yet happened. On its page for the Sandwich site, the company also alluded to “huge renovations that will transform this experience to something else altogether.”
“Though we are not yet prepared to share those plans with you yet, we can assure you it will be something to behold,” Tree House wrote.
In addition to its new locations, Tree House is also expanding its portfolio into the spirits category with Tree House Distillery.
“Over the years, we have built a highly capable ecosystem for creativity,” the company wrote on its website. “The symbiosis between our beer, coffee, cider, wine, farm, and distillery programs makes us uniquely prepared to produce spirits that will surprise and delight you with both their inspired tastes and the artful ways in which we craft them.”
Tree House has tapped John Charles Britton to lead its distillery, who was previously the head distiller at Michigan-based Ann Arbor Distilling. The brand’s first release is Kola, a 20% ABV coffee liqueur, and the company wrote that it plans to offer rum, vodka, gin, whiskey and seasonal fruit brandies.
“A steady stream of new and inventive spirits will be available for your consideration regularly at Tree House in the days, weeks, years, and decades to come, complemented by an extensive cocktail and frozen drink program at the ready when our taprooms reopen,” Tree House wrote.
With the new venture, Tree House joins the ranks of many craft breweries staking ground in the spirits category, which has long stolen share from the beer category.
Tree House Distillery isn’t the first time the craft brewery has dabbled in non-beer beverages. Tree House Coffee Company, founded in 2019, roasts coffee beans and released canned cold brew earlier this month, and Tree House’s Woodstock, Connecticut-based farm sells produce and cider.