The end of innocence. Your dad is not a superhero and neither is your favorite brewery.

Read time approx. 4 min.

Just Tapped

It’s normal for children to have starry-eyed opinions of their parents, but reality eventually creeps in and exposes that your dad is not a superhero. Imperfect like any human, flawed, blemished, capable of really stupid and sometimes unpleasant things. Grappling with that reality is part of growing up.

What does that simple observation about child psychology have to do with beer? Once upon a time, in the land of craft beer, the code of ethics was simple: “Don’t be a dick.” Craft beer fans often held the breweries they loved to unrealistic standards. Those were innocent, naive times. It was our craft beer childhood. No more fairytales.

Trouble in the Tree House

A minority shareholder at Tree House Brewing has filed a lawsuit alleging that his partners behaved in a way that caused him and the business damage. The lawsuit alleges that, among other things, the majority owners (the two founders), concealed millions of dollars in real estate investments, overpaid themselves, withheld critical tax information, and otherwise conducted business in an unethical and potentially illegal manner. 

Media outlets often mention the Massachusetts-based company in conversations about the nation’s best breweries. Tree House Brewing’s IPAs, in particular, attract a lot of attention and earn high ratings. It’s a non-distributed brewery, meaning you must visit one of Tree House’s five locations to get the beer. The lawsuit describes the brewery as “the largest direct-to-consumer on-premises brewery in the United States.” Whale hunters can expect long lines on release days. In addition to good beer, engineered exclusivity and a certain bit of mystery have helped drive Tree House’s popularity and success. 

Back to the lawsuit. Eric Granger, a 2 percent shareholder in the company, filed the lawsuit. Nate Lanier and Damien Goudreau, the brewery’s founders, own the other 98 percent of the company (49 percent each) and are therefore the main focus of the matter. 

On the surface, it sounds like sour grapes, but a deeper look at the lawsuit reveals what looks like a pattern of shady behavior. Yes, it accuses Lanier and Gourdeau of living a life of luxury, with fancy cars and beach houses, but more than that, the lawsuit accuses them of eight counts of breach of fiduciary duty. More than sour grapes.

Allegedly, the bad behavior involves things like the forgery of forms filed with the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Also, allegedly, Lanier and Gourdeau withheld quarterly estimated tax distributions to shareholders. On top of that, the lawsuit alleges that the two intentionally engaged in a scheme to purchase real estate and then lease it back to Tree House. All of this, and more, has caused financial and legal hardship for Granger, the lawsuit alleges. 

According to Brewbound, which has delved deep into the matter, investigators have discovered other improprieties. Remember, these are all just allegations at this point. Nothing has been proven. However, perception is everything these days.

Once upon a time, in addition to making good beer, a brewery needed to behave with a certain level of decorum to succeed. Craft beer fans wanted to support a brewery not only because they liked the beer, but because they perceived that the brewery was run by good people who behaved ethically. We wanted our breweries to stand in stark opposition to the big corporate entities where shade is the name of the game.

Do allegations like this, whether proven true or not, influence consumer choice? Is the beer all that matters? If you discovered that your favorite craft brewery was a bad actor, would you still buy the beer? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Shoot us an email. 

We should not pass judgment on Tree House’s majority owners until the courts have done so. In the meantime, we provide links to two news outlets that have covered the lawsuit in depth. We encourage you to take a look and learn more about the lawsuit.

• Boston dot com

• Brewbound

Say What?

We got some interesting feedback last week. Interesting in that it represents two opposite opinions about what we do on The Taster Tray. Or what we try to do, anyway.

THUMBS DOWN: Feedback from Chilannie@...   “I'd never seen nor heard of the two breweries in this message, so I'm afraid it held no interest for me!”

THUMBS UP: Feedback from Robert.Papadakis@... “Thanks for the news from New England. Very interesting. I know that some of your readers wank about news that is not from the PNW, but I appreciate the wider lens that you apply to craft beers. Keep it up!”

It’s hard to imagine a person who is familiar with all 9,000 breweries in the nation, but we try to find significance in stories about breweries whether you are familiar with them or not. If we missed the mark, we apologize. 

This week's Taster Tray was composed by Kendall Jones.