Modern Times Beer is just the latest in a long line of breweries keen on setting up shop in Los Angeles, with paperwork today from the city confirming that the popular craft beer company will make a home for itself in the heart of Downtown’s South Park neighborhood.

The move itself is nothing new — Modern Times hinted at a big L.A. expansion back in September, but those were just teasers to keep their rabid fan base satisfied. Now comes the full meal: a nearly 6,000 square foot restaurant and brewery space with an outdoor patio and the ability to brew pilot and one-off beers on site. There’s also going to be bottle and growler sales straight from the facility, as well as all-day hours to accommodate the company’s plans to include coffee, vegan food, and more.

The location itself is also significant, as Modern Times will set up at 830 S. Olive Street in the South Park section of Downtown. The standalone structure is a block from dive bar legends Hank’s and Golden Gopher, and just blocks from other drink spots like the Ace Hotel and Mega Bodega. South Park has of late been keeping up with the Arts District in terms of construction and growth, quickly transforming from one of the area’s last old school holdouts into a massive mixed-use zone unto itself, with nearby restaurants like Barcito and Broken Spanish further leading the charge.

Overall the city continues to absolutely thrive with craft beer options (both on the brewery side and the bar/retail side) in popular pockets like Downtown and the South Bay — though the forthcoming Firestone Walker brewpub in Venice will certainly help to anchor that area as well. There’s arguably never been a better time to drink craft beer in Los Angeles, which means Modern Times — which will likely open this fall — could not be arriving at a better time.

Modern Times Los Angeles
830 S. Olive
Los Angeles, CA

Here is the announcement in full about the expansion.

Good evening.  I’m Nate, co-founder and brewer at Tree House.  If I could just borrow a moment of your time, I’d like to share a few reflections on the past along with future plans Damien, Dean, myself, and the rest of the Tree House family have been working very hard to set in motion. . .

TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS, AND A GROWING FAMILY – A WORD ON 2015

What a year!

We started 2015 in a garage with one employee and 55 barrels of cellar space.  We finished it with 13 employees and 650 barrels of cellar space.

I am happy to say that through an incredible rate of expansion we stayed true to our principles. We progressed methodically, carefully, and without compromise.  As a result, I believe our beer is better than ever across a spectrum of styles while becoming far more available than a year ago.

To achieve this has required an intense and herculean effort – and one that I am extremely proud of every member of the Tree House family for contributing to.  It’s impossible to overstate the amount of work and unrelenting focus that is necessary to prepare and present finished beer week in and week out.  Without a deeply committed crew Tree House would not be possible. I would like to use this opportunity to thank them for their incredible and continued efforts.

SOMETHING NEW

We have been looking forward to sharing this news for a long time. . .

We are building a new brewery!

It will reside in Charlton, Massachusetts on a very central yet secluded seventy acres of land true to the Tree House aesthetic with a mixture of woods, green space, and serenity. It is designed as an expandable and multi-faceted 45,000 square foot facility and will feature a state of the art 50 BBL brewhouse, a 5,000 square foot retail space where can sales, bottle sales, and full pours will be offered at least five days a week, and a large outdoor pavilion.  The retail shop will feel familiar, with an open space vista overlooking a tank farm of 60, 120, and 240 BBL fermenters flanked by a natural light-drenched brewhouse.

The facility will house 30,000 barrels of cellar capacity initially and by the end of the first year we plan to have 50,000 barrels of cellar space available. The theoretical maximum for the brewhouse and space is in excess of 125,000 barrels a year.

Despite massive gains in production and efficiency in Monson, it is not nearly enough.   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.

The brewery is being designed in conjunction with Austin Design, Inc. It will be entirely new construction on a parcel of land that is owned by us.  This will afford us creative control of the property now and hopefully very far into the future.

This project aims to break ground in the spring of 2016 and to be operational in the first half of 2017 (we hope).

ARTISTIC EXPRESSION – THE FUTURE MONSON

The current plan for Tree House in Monson is to continue full operations into 2017 until the new brewery is operational and our classic beers are scaled, refined, and true to their original intent.

Once this happens we will slowly wind down major retail operations and clear the space as a barrel hall and center for special projects. We will have almost 10,000 square feet to age, condition, blend, and refine both clean oak projects and mixed fermentation creations.

The existing 30 BBL brewhouse will remain in place along with a number of 30 BBL tanks for wort creation. It will become a veritable nucleus of Tree House creative expression, experimentation, and exploration.  Our existing Wild Goose canning line, a bottling line, and a dedicated bottle conditioning bottling line will be in place so we may extensively carry out projects we have been working on for years but given space limitations have been unable to flesh out.

The grounds will be extensively manicured and maintained, and the facility will be continue to be used for retail with an option for special and private events, both by Tree House and by private parties.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Tree House began life as a group of friends making ten gallon batches of beer in a small barn on St. Clair Road in Brimfield.  We have come a long way since then, but now with a large brewery and an even larger one to come, we maintain a visceral connection to the beginning and what made us start down this road in the first place.  What began as a small project has become an absolute obsession we care deeply about.

Our new brewery is designed to allow us to continue doing what we have always done – just far more efficiently and on a much broader scale.  We have sold precisely no equity to fund this expansion, and creative control of our beer resides completely in our hands.  Imagine!  Beer brewed by us in a state of the art brewery designed specifically to carry out processes we have spent over four years refining!  We could not be more excited.

We feel a greater connection now to those who support us than ever.  We are perpetually grateful that you have embraced us and continue to give us the opportunity to pursue what we love, with the people we love. 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.

On behalf of everyone at Tree House – THANK YOU!

-nate

Follow @treehousebrewco

Media inquiries please e-mail nate@treehousebrew.com

Goodness abounds!

Funky Buddha Brewery, based in Oakland Park, Florida has announced its 2016 release schedule. This long-awaited lineup will include a new year-round beer to add to the brewery’s portfolio of boundary-pushing craft brews, in addition to a whole year’s worth of entries in the “Little Buddha Small Batch” series.

Hop Stimulator Double IPA will join Hop Gun IPA and Floridian Hefeweizen as the third of Funky Buddha’s flagship beers. Generously hopped with Amarillo, Centennial, Citra, and Cascade hops, Hop Stimulator boasts intense passionfruit, grapefruit, orange peel, and pineapple aromas with a crisp, balanced malt body. This monstrously-hopped double (9.5%) India pale ale will make its debut on draft and in four-pack, 12 oz. bottles this April 19th with an MSRP of $11.99 per four-pack.

2016 will also see Funky Buddha grow its “Little Buddha Small Batch” series of beers. This culinary-inspired line of brews will feature such coveted and anxiously awaited beers such as Wide Awake It’s Morning (Imperial Maple Bacon Coffee Porter), Muy Bonita Apple Pie Double Brown Ale, and Don’t Tell Reece Peanut Butter Cup Ale. Available in 22oz bombers and on draft, these beers will see release in Funky Buddha’s tap room and in distribution across the state of Florida.

Do you think this has any impact on the craft beer scene?

The second largest craft brewer in the country, Samuel Adams is unveiling a nitro line of beers. “I want to keep shocking people a little bit,” Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co., told Fortune.

The Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams beers, is expanding its focus.

The company, on Monday, will formally announce plans for a series of nitrogen-carbonated beers – arguably the biggest addition to the Samuel Adams lineup in years. The beers – a white ale, an IPA and a coffee stout – will begin distributing nationally in February 2016.

“I want to keep shocking people a little bit – opening them up to explore the brewer’s art and, as a brewer, expand the boundaries of the brewers art,” Jim Koch, founder and chairman of Boston Beer Co., told Fortune at the Great American Beer Festival.

Nitro beers have largely been the domain of stouts and porters for years. (The most popular nitro today is Guinness Extra Stout.) While it’s not uncommon to find a nitro beer at a bar or brewery, very few brewers sell them in cans or bottles. Koch says the Samuel Adams nitro beers will be sold on draft and in cans with a ‘widget’ inside, a plastic, nitrogen-filled sphere that creates the same effect as nitro on draft.

The move is more than just adding another beer to the company’s substantial lineup. It involves the different type of canning system and substantial investment by the company. As a result, Koch says this will be a national, rather than a regional rollout. The nitro beers will be released in 15.2-ounce cans.

The company has been quietly working on the initiative for years, says Koch, testing between 50 and 80 beers before settling on the three it will release.

“Most beers don’t work well on nitro because they’re not designed for it,” he says. “You can’t just take the beer that’s meant to be carbonated and take it over to nitro and say ‘I like this’. You really have to rebrew it in this parallel universe without the carbonic acid, without the tongue sting, without the aroma release, without the ph. You’re changing a bunch of things. So you really have to make a beer that’s optimized.”

The move to nitro by Samuel Adams follows a recent announcement that Guinness plans to release a nitro IPA this month.

“We aimed to make a balanced, smooth beer,” said brewer Luis Ortega in a statement when the beer was unveiled earlier this week. “Guinness perfected nitrogenated beer more than 60 years ago, so we believed we could really add something new to the style. There’s plenty of hoppy flavor, with citrus aroma to the fore, but the nitrogen rounds it all out.”

While Samuel Adams didn’t have its nitro IPA on tap for tasting, it did invite attendees to a brunch on Friday for a taste of the Nitro White Ale. The beer was very smooth on the palate with a hint of orange and subdued spice.

Samuel Adams is the second largest craft beer brewer in the country, though its formal classification as a craft brewer isat risk these days, as Congress contemplates formal definitions for the term.

Koch says he’s not aiming to bring in a new audience with the nitro beer line. Instead, he said, he’s looking to expand the options for nitro fans – and the craft beer drinker who’s always looking for something new.

‘My experience has been make something wonderful and somebody will drink it,” he says. “And if it’s truly wonderful, you’ll surprise yourself in how many people want to participate.”

Being a huge fan of both Hopslam and Craft cans this is excellent news in my opinion!

One of our most sought after beers, Hopslam Ale, will be packaged solely in six-packs of 12 oz. cans and kegs when it returns in January for its annual release.

The Double India Pale Ale, brewed with Michigan honey, will not be bottled as it has been in the past.