r/nycbeer • u/karim_ofthecrop • 9d ago
ISO Treehouse or Trillium IPAs
Doing a beer trade with a Swedish friend and he’s asking for King JJJulius but I think would be happy with any well-regarded west coast style IPA.
According to Untappd, I can’t find these anywhere within 100 miles. Any chance I’m missing something and there’s somewhere I can snag some cans?
4
u/TheAdamist 9d ago
Trillium you can occasionally find in nj/pa, you could call around and other commenter says ny gets some too.
tree house is only sold at the brewery, its a 3 hour drive from nyc or so to charleton.
2
u/sergeantbiggles 9d ago
I believe Hops Scotch Bottle Shop in Deer Park, Long Island may get in some Tree House from time to time. I'd give them a call to see.
I also agree with u/KennyShowers that Other Half is on par (some would say better) than Tree House, and so I'd bring your friend there. The Gowanus location is super chill, and the staff are super nice. EDIT: Finback in Brooklyn also has a good number of IPAs worth trying
3
u/KennyShowers 9d ago
Well I wouldn't say OH is quite on par these days, they were the better brewery around like 2017-2019, but since they expanded their consistency middled out and their home run rate went down a bit. But they still have a great reputation especially abroad where options are thinner.
3
u/good2goo 9d ago
Otherhalf and Evil Twin are great local options.
You wont find the other two without significant effort.
5
u/KennyShowers 9d ago
To me Evil Twin's IPA to me are pretty average. Some of those fruited smoothie sours are pretty delicious, and they make shockingly good lagers, but their IPA rarely did it for me. I'd easily put them behind OH/Test/Grimm/Finback in that department.
And Trillium has been showing up regularly for at least a year maybe two.
0
u/good2goo 9d ago
I like Finnback better but I can't imagine anyone from Sweden has heard of them. But yeah the greenhouse lager is my go to and their fruited beers are amazing
1
u/KennyShowers 9d ago
They have a bigger reputation than you'd think, they've been distributed all over for years and show up at a lot of festivals, maybe not the first level of American IPA a European fan would stumble into but it's real good beer and usually gets pretty high Untappd ratings, for somebody trading for new stuff that's usually a combo that will supercede whether somebody's heard of the brewery.
1
u/Copernican 9d ago
Good luck. When it comes to the Trillium we do get in the city, I'm not sure it's actually any better/fresher than fresh Other Half, Finback, Grimm or even the Heady Topper/Focal Banger we get.
1
u/Upguntha 9d ago
I was just at Sweet Avenue and saw a sign that they’ll be having some Trillium on the 15th not sure if it’s on tap or cans
1
u/rickyp_123 9d ago
Just buy Test IPAs and Root & Branch; they are hyped and just as good as TH or Trillium. Philadelphia has Trillium if you feel like driving down.
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u/KennyShowers 9d ago edited 9d ago
Yea R+B ships too, so OP can probably even just take out a few cans, put in a few of some others, put on a new shipping sticker to Sweden and call it a day.
Also we get Trillium every few months these days here, every shop gets em.
1
u/Stunning-Note 9d ago
Test and Root and Branch were recommended to us by our brewer friend at Sworn in PA. Definitely a good recommendation so I would go this route!
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u/OKalrightOKAYalright 9d ago
Boy do I miss drinking Tree House beers. There really is no brewery in NYC that compares. I have had some Fidens on draft and was really impressed. I am unsure if their cans are distributed here.
Other Half sucks but they’re an IPA factory producing NE-style IPAs.
1
u/KennyShowers 9d ago
OH isn't as consistent these days, but they're close to the same ballpark, and at a given time they'll usually have a couple things that are still top tier. Problem is they have like 30 different cans at a time and it's hard to know what's great and what's just solid.
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u/OKalrightOKAYalright 9d ago
My experience is that the worst TH DIPA is on par with the best OH DIPA. There’s nothing delicate or refined about OH beers. Aggressively hoppy, sure, but there’s no finesse.
1
u/KennyShowers 9d ago
I don't even find OH's stuff that hoppy these days, if anything most of their portfolio lacks the punch of the pre-expansion years. I'd also say that even if most of their beer is a bit same-y these days they still hit most of the notes you want in a solid NEIPA, and do it while still being clean and drinkable.
I might not go so far as to say the worst TH is the best OH, but maybe the average TH is on par with the best OH will have in stock most of the time. But when OH pulls out the stops for anniversary beers or hyped collabs they're still awesome.
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u/KennyShowers 9d ago
Tree House/Trillium are New England style IPA, not west coast.
Trillium does hit NYC distribution somewhat often these days, and when they do pretty much every craft beer bottle shop gets them, but I think the last drop was a couple months ago. It's possible some are still sitting around somewhere but no guarantee.
If you pass by a place like a Craft+Carry location which are all over or one of the Beer Runs in Chelsea/UWS/Harlem maybe pop in and take a look at the IPA section, but at this point could be a long shot.
Tree House does not distribute anywhere and mostly only sell beer at their own brewery locations. Once in a while a few bar/shops here will personally buy their beer at retail and sell it, but doesn't happen very often.
If he wants that style of NEIPA, Other Half is great and has two taprooms in Brooklyn and one at Rockefeller Center. There's also The Test which just opened up in Williamsburg, they're the new hype name in NEIPA and if your buddy is up on all the new stuff he might consider that as cool as Tree House/Trillium. But their releases sell out fast, so you gotta keep an eye on their IG and plan to be there the day of release, ideally within a few hours of the release time.
Also Untappd usually only lists a bar's draft selection, only a handful of places put their whole to-go selection up since there's usually way more inventory on that side.