Next Draft

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

To the uninitiated, a weekend trip to Tree House Brewing Co. in Charlton can seem overwhelming.

The swelling crowds, myriad beer options and long lines — if you don’t know what to expect or don’t know the ordering process, you might feel confused or anxious upon arrival.

Take heart though, you’ll nearly always find someone to point you in the right direction.

Eric Clark is one such Tree House tour guide.

Once a newbie himself, Clark called a friend before his first trip to Tree House in 2016 for a tutorial on how to secure your place in line and order growlers. He later paid that knowledge forward in a big way: taking on the role as one of five administrators for Tree House Brew Co: Line Updates, a private Facebook group that provides information for visiting Tree House — to more than 43,000 people (and growing) every day.

“Tree House is a destination: People make it part of their trips, and they want to know that information,” Clark said.

With Tree House now selling beer at four different locations and having recently reopened for draft service in Charlton, the group has never been more relevant or necessary: It has not taken long for the weekend masses to return.

The group formed in 2015 as a small gathering space for Tree House enthusiasts to chat about their beloved brewery. Soon questions about the daily wait times dominated discussions, with the group morphing into more of an information hub for line updates and beer releases.

Clark likens the group to Waze, the crowd-sourced maps app, but for navigating all things Tree House. The page relies on real-time updates from people at Tree House — often accompanied by pictures — who describe how much time you can expect to wait for your beer, whether picking up cans or staying for pours. Sometimes the reports give time estimates or approximate the number of people waiting. Common updates pinpoint where the lines end, such as “to the top of the parking lot.”

Each morning, one of the admins has a post packed with information to help you better plan your Tree House visit. They include basic details about each location, such as the hours of operation or availability of pours, links to the brewery’s own FAQs and wayfinding pages — which inevitably people fail to read — and brief summaries of the order procedure for each site.

“Each location has different formats for how you get your beer: Charlton you get in line again, Deerfield and the Cape, you stay in your car,” Clark said. You’ll find the most valuable insight in the comments under each post, where people file mini-dispatches from one of Tree House’s four locations. The admins also have a reliable team of moderators to delete misinformation from the comments and answer questions, like what the minimum purchase per order is ($65) or whether there will be a food truck.

“We rely heavily on the commenters — the customers,” said David Ryan, one of the group’s admins. “They will engage with the Tree House staff, and they can ask questions and get concrete answers. We’ll go through that and try our best to summarize what’s currently happening at each location.”

Last month, Tree House resumed draft pours in Charlton,

The patio view of Tree House Brewing in Charlton. T&G FILE PHOTO/CHRISTINE PETERSON

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er. Online food orders for pickup are accepted. Check www.noursefarm.com for the farm’s history and info about subscription to the farm’s Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. (FYI: Summer CSA is filled but you can find info for the fall CSA in October.)

More than 40 fruits and vegetables are grown by Nourse Farm, and crop availability changes month to month.

The farm’s timetable for blueberries is after the Fourth of July, “probably more towards mid-July,” according to Nourse, who expects the crop will be ready in time for this month’s farm celebration.

Taste of the Harvest, open to the public, is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. July 18. The focus will be the farm, which celebrates its 300th anniversary next year.

Tasty and nutritious, blueberries this month at the food trailer will be featured in smoothies, in addition to a new blueberry vinaigrette for drizzling over fresh salads. The Farm Store will sell homemade, fresh blueberry pies. Visitors to the store look forward to seasonal fruit pies and other desserts made on premise, said Nourse. On a personal note: A friend, whose husband co-owns a popular Worcester bakery, says she finds the chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the oven, “irresistible” when she’s at the farm.

The farm’s Cut-Your-Own-Flower field opens this month. For info about pick-your-own, call (508) 366-2644.

Veg Out Food Trailer hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. On a hot summer day, enjoy dishes like Cool as a Cucumber Soup or the light and refreshing U Make Me So Happy Salad that features zucchini noodles, julienned carrots and purple cabbage with a ginger miso dressing.

Farm Store: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Farm produce, specialty products and more!

Nourse Farm, 80 Jasper St., has a self-guided informational trail that gives visitors a chance to walk in fields and learn about the surroundings. The half-mile walk along a dirt road takes “about 20 minutes.”

Nourse Farm is among local farms and farmers markets where you can enjoy a taste of summer.

Taste of Shrewsbury Street participants include, from left, Lee Hanson from Leo's Ristorante, Meraki owner Joanna Bachour, McDonald's franchisee Katie Hurley, and Vintage Grille owner Chris Stone. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

The return of Taste of Shrewsbury Street is good news.

The event, canceled last summer due to the pandemic, is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. Aug. 24.

Cost will be $25 per person, with admission stickers, and it will feature food, live music and more. The Table Hoppin’ column will list participants closer to the August date.

Also, Roger Bachour looks forward to an August opening of his new business, Meraki Café at 274 Shrewsbury St. The former Dark Rose Saloon space is being renovated and Bachour would like the café to be open in time for Taste of Shrewsbury Street. He will go before the Worcester License Commission before then, he said.

The café will serve desserts, no meals, according to Bachour and his wife, Joanna Bachour, who will work in the business.

Bachour owns Boardroom Kitchen & Bar, 139 Water St., Worcester, and the Whiskey Lounge, 316 Main St., Worcester. He has been associated with the hospitality industry for more than 25 years.

Circle the date: Worcester Restaurant Week 2021 is set for Aug. 2-Aug 14.

If you have a tidbit for the column, call (508) 868-5282. Send email to bhoulefood@gmail.com.

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but without any formal announcement. Yet the group’s administrators knew almost immediately thanks to their vast community of tipsters. Eagle-eyed members had noticed subtle changes to the website foreshadowing the return of draft pours. And they were at Tree House sending in pictures of their draft cups that day and breaking down the new system for ordering pours.

The group is the ultimate source for all of Tree House’s secret releases. Part of Tree House’s allure has always been its silent drops of new beers, not listed on its website for the day. When members learn about these beers, they post about them, in some ways spoiling the surprise and buzz Tree House hoped to create.

“There are times where Tree House’s strategy to go to market is undermined by us, because we have all the information that works against that hype,” Clark said. “They do it in a way that creates that fear of missing out. If there are gaps in information, and they are doing it purposely to create that allure or fear of missing out, we’re there to fill in the gaps.”

There has never been any animosity between the group and the brewery, though, even as there have been no public endorsements from Tree House: merely silent respect and mutual understanding.

Now would be a good time to stress that none of the group’s admins work or have worked for Tree House. In fact, in talking with four of them, I’ve learned they all have stressful day jobs. Three live in Connecticut.

“People often think we work for Tree House, but no: In reality we just waste a ton of time on social media to help you,” said Tim Derouin, of Monson, the only admin I spoke with who lives in Massachusetts.

Writing them off as simply Tree House fanboys also misses the point. They aim to make the Tree House scene — and the craft beer community at large — as welcoming and helpful as possible. They also all agree that they’ve met some of the friendliest people waiting in line at Tree House.

“It’s all about the sense of community,” Derouin said. “You go to Six Flags and you’re waiting in line, but there’s no common ground, you aren’t talking about roller coasters across the country.”

There has been no better example of that community than when it came out in support of Nicholas Hutchinson, an admin, and his wife, Jess. In March, Hutchinson’s son, Callum, was born premature at 32 weeks and had a fiveweek stay in the hospital with 24-hour monitoring.

Clark, Hutchinson’s best friend, posted in the group that he was raising money to help cover the family’s medical expenses by raffling off Tree House beer. The response was enormous, with the raffle raising more than $10,000.

“It was an awesome display of the people in that group and how generous they are,” Hutchinson said.

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

There is something of an art to putting together a Fourth of July Playlist. You want some songs that speak to the country, however it is that you feel about it. You want some songs that speak to the heat and swelter in the air. You want some good grooves you can dance to, and you want the overall vibe to be positive, upbeat and maybe even a little inspirational. What follows are a few suggestions for a New England-centric playlist for your Independence Day Barbecue, if Barbecues Are A Thing We’re Doing This Year, accompanied online by a Spotify playlist which has some explicit lyrics and which will invariably delight some and annoy others. Because freedom.

SOMETHING TO GROOVE TO: If you want straight-up splash of unironic patriotism, you can’t do any better than Annie Brobst’s recent song, “Holler & Swaller,” a song about kicking up a ruckus in “the home of the brave and the land of the free.” It’s irresistible. On the same token, the sheer optimism and positive energy of Jazzmyn Red’s “We Gon Make It” is an ode to social justice and positive change that you can dance to. Much the same with the rap-rock fusion of Oompa’s collaboration with Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys, “Love Be the Way,” or Ruby Rose Fox’s spiritually soaring “Lady Godiva.” Of course, it’s not all politics: Michael Kane & the Morning Afters’ “Carol Kaye” is an infectious earworm and an ode to the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. What’s more American than that?

A LITTLE SUMMER HEAT: There’s a sizzle in the air, and it should be reflected in the music, and in a lot of ways, that calls for some jazz. How about Tyra Penn and Her Army of Snakes’ rendition of “Summertime,” Eddie Japan’s’s searing “Summer Hair,” Savoir Faire’s steamy and haunting “1945,” or Senseless Optimism’s soulful “Why?” Of course, if you want to turn up the heat a little more, there’s always Ralph Weah’s sizzling “Run Away” and Louie Gonz’s gritty “My City.” It’s best to balance out all this sizzle with something soaring, such as Leon Legacy’s “Superman Vibe,” or something just indelibly cool, like “Get It Poppin’” by the K. Fingers band. Sure, not all of these are about “summer” or “America,” but a theme too tightly held makes for tedious listening.

YEAH, OK, SOME POLITICS: Let’s face it, a lot of the best songs about America have a social justice bent and an unrestrained rage against injustice. Some people try to write this off as “hating America,” but frankly, you can’t work up that much anger if you don’t care in the first place, and protest songs are some of the country’s best. A few regional selections might include Zigmont’s defiant “No Lo Contendre”; “Rich Man, Poor Man” from the the trio of Worcester rappers that comprise Stanton Capitol Rec-

Annie Brobst’s newest album is “Where We Holler.”

MATTHEW ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY Jazzmyn Red’s song “We Gon Make It” is a good choice for a Fourth of July playlist. CHRISTINE PETERSON/T&G

Eddie Japan’s “Summer Hair” adds some heat to a playlist. T&G FILE