Matthew L.
Yelp
Tree House Orchard & Farm Fermentory is a craft cidery, brewery, working farm and orchard that opened in Woodstock, Connecticut in October 2020. It was founded by friends Dean Rohan, Nate Lanier and Damien Goudreau. This is a spin-off of Tree House Brewing Company, which opened in Brimfield, Massachusetts in 2011. The trio started out as homebrewers around 2008 and would make beer in Lanier's kitchen. They opened their brewery in a small red barn on a 2.7 acre farm in Brimfield. They named it "Tree House" after an actual tree house that sat on the property. The partners sold beer strictly via growler fills and their popularity grew at an alarming rate simply by word of mouth. Following some zoning disputes, Tree House moved to a large red shed on Koran Farm (owned by the family of one of the founders) in nearby Monson in December 2013. In June 2015, they opened a larger facility across the street which expanded their capacity six-fold and they now had a canning line. In May 2017, Tree House opened a 53,000 square foot state-of-the-art brewing facility in Charlton. The Monson facility closed to the public but continued to be used as their barrel-aging facility. In addition to their home base in Charlton, Tree House now has secondary locations in South Deerfield (Western Mass), Sandwich (Cape Cod), and Tewksbury (Greater Boston). In addition to making beer, they also now have distillery, coffee roastery operations, and wood-fired pizza at two locations.
In 2019, Tree House purchased a 94-acre working farm in Woodstock, Connecticut. The plan was to start a fementory operation here as well as a CSA program led by heirloom farmer Eric Nelson. Rather than brewing their signature beer, Tree House set their sights on crafting hard cider at the farm. Apples, pears, berries, grapes, stonefruit, squash, hops, and other various produce are grown on the farm to be used as ingredients for hard cider as well as for beer brewed at the other Tree House locations. The property opened to the public in October 2020. Although they initially only offered cider, the Woodstock location began serving beer (brewed exclusively on the farm) in July 2023.
My family and I recently visited the Tree House Orchard and Farm Fermentory. We have been to Tree House's flagship location in Charlton several times, as well as their locations in South Deerfield and Sandwich. The grounds of the farm were just breathtaking, especially with all of the fall foliage. There were fruit trees and fields of fresh produce as far as the eye could see. They even have their own honeybee hives on the property. The grounds are adorned with several Adirondack chairs, fire pits, cornhole boards, and hiking trails. The vibe here in Woodstock was VERY different than any other Tree House location. There were not droves of cars and craft beer fans. Instead there was a beautiful rustic farm, a very small crowd, peace and quiet. The tasting room was located inside an old repurposed barn that featured a vintage 1898 Boomer and Boschert manual apple press. I've only seen a press like that in one other place, and that was the oldest cidery in America. Tree House has some of the best beers I've ever tasted, but how would their ciders rank? Would lightning strike twice? My wife and I ordered draught pours of "Deuxième Utilisation Baie Et Pêche" which was aged with red & black raspberries and peaches. It was one of the greatest ciders that we ever tasted! Together with our sons, we sat at some Adirondack chairs by a fire pit and enjoyed a charcuterie board that we brought along while taking in the beautiful scenery. Later on I enjoyed a draught pour of "Woodstock Double IPA" (Citra), which is one of the beers that's brewed exclusively at this location. It was fantastic! In addition to hard cider and beer, the Woodstock location also sells soft cider. I purchased bottles of four hard ciders to take back home. Overall we had a fantastic experience at Tree House Orchard & Farm Fermentory and can't wait to return!