Tree House Brewing to Grow a New Branch in Charlton

A rainbow of Tree House beers. / Photo via Facebook

When Tree House Brewing Company moved into its current home in Monson, cofounder Nate Lanier called it their “dream brewery.”

Well, that dream has gotten much bigger in the past year: Lanier and partners Damien Goudreau, Jonathan Weisbach, and Dean Rohan announced today that Tree House is building a brand-new, 45,000 square foot production facility in Charlton. The company purchased the 70-acre plot of land, and it plans to break ground on the new building later this spring.

That means more of Tree House’s fruity, cloudy IPAs; its wild fermented beers, its barrel-aged stouts, and the other brews that puts the western Mass. producer in the upper echelon of New England breweries.

The new space, designed in conjunction with Austin Design, Inc., is five times the size of its current home, with a “theoretical capacity” of 125,000 barrels per year. For context, last year’s move gave it a 7,000-barrel capacity.

“Despite massive gains in production and efficiency in Monson, it is not nearly enough,” Lanier writes in today’s announcement, which, as of presstime, had crashed Tree House’s website. “The intent of the new brewery is to make our beer better than ever, vastly expand our range of offerings, make our core offerings more readily available, and to create a central gathering place of kinship and camaraderie for beer enthusiasts.”

In addition to a 50-barrel brewhouse and 50,000 barrels of cellar space, the new facility will have a 5,000 square foot retail space for can and bottle sales and full pours (!), as well as “a large outdoor pavilion.” It’s all situated on “a very central yet secluded” plot of land, “true to the Tree House aesthetic with a mixture of woods, green space, and serenity.”

Lanier doesn’t divulge the exact location in today’s letter, but Charlton is located about 20 miles east of Monson.

Once the new facility is operational—Lanier is hopeful that could be in the first half of 2017—Tree House won’t close the doors in Monson.

The current brewery, about a 20-minute drive from the Mass. Pike, will become a barrel hall and a place for special projects. The existing canning and bottling line will stay there, “so we may extensively carry out projects we have been working on for years” that have fallen to the wayside because of space constraints.

“Beer brewed by us in a state of the art brewery designed specifically to carry out processes we have spent four years refining! We could not be more excited,” Lanier writes. “We will continue to pour our soul into the beer we make, the experience we provide, and the work we do. This is for you.”

Thanks, guys.