Anyone visited Trillium Brewery?

I moved out of the North East 10 years ago and it seems like some of the best breweries in the country are popping up in ME,VT,CT and MA. Planning a trip back up North in early January and planned to visit Trillium. Anyone had their beers? if so what IPA’s should I be chasing? Any other do not miss breweries putting out incredible NE style IPA’s anyone could recommend?

Tree House, Hill Farmstead are two I’m aware of.

Fire away any questions. If you like that style of IPAs they are tops in my book alongside Tree House. Availability wise, cans are virtually only offered at either location, Canton or Fort Point, though some select retailers do get beer occassionally. Their social media is updated daily to reflect what is being canned that week. I think they normally can 4 times a week with yield in the 500+ case range. Usually no line as well. I love Tree House but the drive and wait is a turn-off.

I could drink Fort Point exclusively and be very happy. If you gave me easy access to Tree House Green, I would choose that however by a nose.

Very good beers in the NE style, but I find very little difference among their many different IPAs. Even their one-offs taste pretty much like all the others to me. (Though it’s entirely possible I’m just a beer rube.) I’ve only been to the Boston (Fort Point) location, and as Greg said, basically no wait for cans. Check their social media and website for availability; on any given day they will have at least 6-8 selections, or more.

A final warning: after 3-4 weeks in the can they fall off a cliff. So don’t overbuy and make sure you’re picking the most recently-canned ones.

Pro tip: you can buy singles of the cans and are not restricted to 4-pack format.

Totally agree. They fall off quicker than any of the other major NE ipas

If you’re headed to Boston prioritize Night Shift over Trillium. Not even in the same league.

Respectively disagree, though easy to do both in the same day. Plus night shift is much easier to find in retail locations if time is limited.

The canton location has become quite busy On weekends but still not terrible. The tap room is worth the stay and they usually have a good food truck providing eats.

Given the long lines at Tree house, the 5- 10 min wait at Trillium is acceptable. Especially if you get a glass of beer to comfort you while you wait.

Having a world class brewery 20 min from my house with always interesting hoppy beers makes me a happy Beer Geek !!

Hats off to to the Tetraults !!!

Was at Trillium Canton Friday, no wait at all for cans around 12:30pm. Also a fan of Night Shift. Tree House wait can upwards of an hour, not fun.

In CT I recommend New England Brewing and Back East.

amateur hour boys. IPA can releases are 3+ hour events in socal. ;D

You trying to get competition out of line at Trillium or something? I like Nightshift and all but Trillium makes significantly better beers. Not just my opinion but the generally accepted opinion of most beer geeks.

For what it’s worth, Trillium’s dry hopped beers, especially Fort Point Galaxy, rival most beers made at Treehouse (probably the better overall producer).

Nightshift could compete in Portland. Trillium would struggle.

For what it’s worth, here are the average Untappd scores for the top 5 most popular/common beers for breweries near the Boston area:

Tree House: 4.49/5.00
Trillium: 4.36
Night Shift: 3.98
Cold Harbor: 3.90
Medusa: 3.87
Wormtown: 3.80
Aeronaut: 3.78

Maine also puts out some great NE-style IPAs. Foundation Ephiphany, Maine Brewing Lunch/Dinner and Bissell Bros Swish rival most anything put out by Trillium or Tree House. Obviously a bit of a drive (although Lunch makes its way into stores and taps sometimes around Boston).

I’d also recommend the following restaurants/bars for taps most likely to have something NE-IPA:

Picco in the South End
Coda and Salty Pig in the Back Bay
Row 34 in Fort Point
Mystic Station in Malden
Branch Line in Watertown
Publick House in Brookline

Never tried Nightshift, but drink a lot of Oregon beer, including IPAs. Respectfully disagree Trilium would struggle. From what I’ve had of Trilium’s hoppy beers, I’d put them up against the very best Oregon breweries.

Interesting, why would Nightshift succeed and Trillium struggle ? Very few breweries can be mentioned in the same breath as Trillium, and IMHO Nightshift is not one of them. They make nice beers, I have had several, but they are not an elite tier brewery like a Trillium or Treehouse. But I am very curious why you say Nightshift can compete and Trillium would struggle ? Care to expound on this ?

Cheers,

Bud

I haven’t had a great deal of experience drinking Trilium or Tree House but seeing numerous pics of their beers, I can say that the amount of solids left in many of their beers is worrisome and not necessarily in my wheelhouse. The push for 100% late bittering doesn’t lend itself to beers that hold up in the long term but if consumed fresh…not a big deal. It’s these modern “milkshake” beers that I just can’t wrap my head around as they A) are impossible when trying to create flavor consistency and B) plain and simply give me the shits. Not saying that either brewery above hasn’t earned their strong reputation but they can also create similar flavor and aroma profiles while also cleaning up the beer.

I am regular visitor/purchaser of Trillium’s hoppy beers. I have never had any intestinal issues w/ any of their beers. Not sure how you can criticize their products if you don’t drink them.

I like many of Trillium’s offerings but it’s a haul for me to get to either of their locations in either Canton or Boston. I used to drive to a couple of retailers north of the city who distributed it getting deliveries every Thursday. They marked it up pretty steeply but it was worth it just to save aggravation and gas. Since they brought on the new canning line things have changed for distribution. The retailers were basically shut off and now only get sporadic deliveries and only find out the night before via e-mail that they will get anything. Also, they seam to only get what’s leftover what didn’t sell out at the brewery.

Thankfully, a new local craft brew store has decided to make a once a week trip into Boston and literally just buy it at retail and then schlep it back to their store just to keep their customers happy. It’s about the same price I was used to paying and it’s legal. They store called the ABC commission beforehand just to clear it with them and it all worked out.