Fans of hard-to-find hazy IPAs will have a new outlet to purchase them next summer when Charlton, Massachusetts-headquartered Tree House Brewing Company opens an outpost on Cape Cod.
From the department of things to look forward to in 2021:
Tree House on the Cape. 🌈 🌊 https://t.co/0GPcWh2n21#taproomreleasethursday pic.twitter.com/E9RodWvel4
— Tree House Brewing Co.🍺 (@TreeHouseBrewCo) November 5, 2020
“Tree House, on a deck, overlooking the bay, on Cape Cod — does it get more awesome than that?” the company wrote on its website. “Situated in the idyllic Cape Cod town of Sandwich, nestled between the stunning Sandwich boardwalk, filled with brilliant blue channels of pristine ocean water, and the bayside outlet of the Cape Cod Canal, and near a small bustling downtown of eateries and shops, this location is one of the most beautiful for eating and drinking anywhere on the Cape.”
Tree House was founded in 2011 in central Massachusetts and opened its headquarters in Charlton in 2017. It famously does not distribute its products, and last year sold 49,880 barrels of beer from its own facility, according to data from the Brewers Association. 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 a second location as a way of “relieving pressure on our main campus.”
“This year we’ve reflected deeply upon the experience in Charlton and realized that many of the limitations currently in place are a function of over-demand and under-supply; not for beer, but as a communal gathering place,” the company wrote. “In spite of relentless effort and constant reinvestment to make it the simple, relaxed environment we have described, we continue to fail in the face of our ever-growing customer base.”
In Sandwich, Tree House will operate a taproom and with food service from resident food trucks and beer-to-go. Images on the company’s website show a multi-story building with a wraparound deck on a beach. Tree House hinted at “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,” the company wrote.
Sandwich is the first town on the other side of the Sagamore Bridge, one of two that connects Cape Cod to the mainland of Massachusetts, and is more than 100 miles from Tree House’s headquarters in Charlton.
The future Tree House Cape Cod site was the home of Horizons and more recently the Drunken Seal restaurant. It sits on nearly half an acre of land, and the value of the property is assessed at $1.207 million, according to The Enterprise. Its address is 98 Town Neck Road.
Tree House Cape Cod’s taproom operations next summer are “pending the state of the coronavirus pandemic.” However, the company said it plans to begin selling beer-to-go sooner.
In addition to Tree House’s Charlton location, the company operates a barrel-aging program at its original location in Monson, and owns a farm in Woodstock, Connecticut. At the farm, guests can purchase apple cider, produce and Tree House coffee. Visits are by reservation only.
This story was updated on November 6 at 4:30 p.m. EST to update Tree House’s 2019 production volume.