Tree Brewing Beer Institute

The beer institute has a lot of great things going for it! The tank to glass system is cool and ensures the freshest beer! Really like the hop head IPA and the kolsh! The seasonal black lager they had on tap was good too!
The pizza seemed pricey but once we tasted it, it was well worth the price. It was good quality pizza and beer.
The only down side to this place is trying to find parking.
Overall, the service was good, the staff were friendly, and the food/​beer was good. I would highly recommend it.

Great beers. Nice picnic tables upstairs which are good for bigger groups

So here’s a established company that has a chance to really do something great. Perfect location in established area but they just didn’t hit the mark.
Pizza was overloaded with sauce and messy. Beer was flat I’ll go back if I see these folks have kicked it up a notch.

So, I was in Kelowna a year and a half ago from Arizona and discovered Tree Brewing while on our own «grapes and grains» walk through the city. The location at the Delta Grand wasn’t done and I was a little bummed. But wow, what a pleasant surprise. Great space, well decorated and super friendly and accessible.
The beer is pretty dang good. I had the Redwood and everyone else was having Vertical Ale. The food was good, as a pretzel and cheese is an important menu item. The pizza was solid with not many complaints… But it’s about the beer, and they do it very very well.
Oh… And guys, the bathroom is a legit design. All bathrooms should be done like this.

Spent a Saturday night here with a group of friends and had an absolute blast!
They have a limited food menu — a handful of pizzas, pretzels and other small items. We didn’t try any of them but the star of the menu is the local craft beer.
We ordered a few flights of beer which were delicious. I loved the cider and would recommend it to anyone.
The patios were great. There is one at street level and another one on the second floor over looking the street. They are the perfect spot to grab a board game (!) and hang out with some friends while having a drink.
I’m not sure if they always do it like this but they served beer English pub style where you walk up to the counter, order your beer and pay. The server let us know that as soon as we walked in the door. Overall service was friendly!

They brew fantastic beers and I like the idea that you can buy a jar to take it home as well. The downside is that there is no service at the table and the seats (at least outside) are really not comfortable if you want to stay longer as for one beer

We had been looking forward to visiting all week while we were in Kelowna. After several hours at the beach we headed on over. Im big on customer service & when the service is bad the minute you walk in-​it sets the tone.
I walk up to the bar asking questions about the games (kids), beer tasting menu, ordering, etc. The zombie behind the bar was no help at all. He was unfriendly & not helpful.
I normally would walk out based on this service but my partner was looking forward to the beer tasting so I kept quiet. We decided on food at our table and headed back to the bar to order said food & the beers for our tasting.
Sadly the zombie was still there and offered no help as we tried to figure out what beer to sample after placing our food order. In fact he told us there were people waiting behind us! So rude and the worst service we experienced all week. Maybe if you could have been more helpful and pretended you liked your job we would have ordered quicker instead of standing there in a daze.
The pizza we ordered was good so they have that going for them. But the pretzel came with some sort of beer/​cheese sauce that was broken/​separated and very unappealing.
Sad to day I wouldn’t come back.

Love this place.
Staff is great and dig that they are constantly trying out new beer recipes.

If you want to buy a drink from worlds grumpiest bartender I suggest you get to this place immediately. We however left in search of someone who cares about their place of work and feels like serving some radical peeps. Unfortunately while moving locations the movers dropped their customer service along the way;)

Great idea, but there’s something awkward about the execution. Confusing bar area where the bartender has to manage both walk-​up orders and seated bar patrons. Mismatched seating makes for awkward conversation heights at the same table. Beer is excellent, and I like Tree Brewing as a company, but this concept establishment misses the mark.

The beer is good, most of the time. And isn’t overpriced. It’s a cool idea to offer beer fresh off the line and in terms of selection and location, it bests Freddy’s Brewpub. Where it doesn’t best Freddy’s is in seating and menu. The menu sucks and isn’t overly tasty and the seating is just horrible. Rock hard, uncomfortable seats that seem to suggest you not spend a great deal of time there. Strange message to send for a brewpub. There are better brewpubs in Penticton, Vernon and Kamloops.

Very nice décor. Can’t comment on beer but they had nothing but water to offer for non drinkers… I realize it’s a brewery so take that info with a grain of salt. I found that fact to be very disappointing

Short version: Great beer, limited menu, they close early, & many of the seats are uncomfortable. On the whole, I will be back for the beer.
Longer version: The Tree Brewing Institute is a young addition to the central Kelowna bar scene. I first checked it out in Oct. 2014, when it had just opened & was still functioning on limited hours, taps, & seating area. I enjoyed my Hop Head paired with a cheese platter that included a side of spent-​grain crackers — yes, they make bread products from the brewing remainders. Clever, & in that instance, tasty. Patios were still under construction.
I was last there in May 2015 & the patios are open! Unfortunately, some of the seating is ridiculously uncomfortable, especially the metal staves that rebound when anyone moves. Sitting at the large round tables outside is not recommended.
Some of the inside seating is also uncomfortable, with narrow, hard, mismatched chairs. Is this a hipster thing? How am I supposed to play the available board games when all I can think about is how much my butt hurts? (not to mention my back)
Thankfully, this is one of my all-​time favourite breweries, so I can still have a good time. I think I like every beer they have ever produced, including what was my first taste of a west coast style IPA many years ago — Hop Head.
They have several different taps which rotate; their delicious Duke’s Cider was available when I was last in. If you love dry cider, you must try this!
If you want to invest in one of their growlers, you can get ridiculously cheap beer to go, as in under $ 9 for one of their large growlers. This is the number one reason to move to Kelowna! (Okay, so it would be MY number one reason…)
Food is limited & a work in progress. My last visit, I had the flatbread made with spent grain, & I wish I hadn’t. If you like sopping wet cardboard, you will probably disagree with me. A few of the crust edges had half-​decent flavour, but the rest was soggy & quite frankly, gross. The crust base was floppy & flavourless, & the texture was not improved by too much cheese. My dining partner had a different flatbread, & was in complete agreement with me. If either the crust was pre-​baked more, or there was less cheese so some moisture could escape during the baking process, this might be palatable.
When I was there last, last call was before 10 pm. I hope they extend that.
3 ½ stars, which I will round down because the server didn’t seem to care that we complained about the inedible pizzas. Doubt I will risk eating a meal there any time soon.
Ground floor & washrooms are accessible.

Great place to enjoy a hand crafted beer … or in my case a Dukes Cider … Great team of knowledgeable staff and good eats

Nice selection of beer, great downtown marina location. Favorites were the Kolsch and ale. They have a good selection of beer food as well, had the pretzel which was actually 2 and very good (also came with olives and a couple pieces of chessy bread with a parm-​dipping sauce). Good selection of indoor and outdoor seating. Not really dog friendly though –bummer

Having had Tree brews over the years, it was time to see where it all came from.
Parking is a bit tough, as this location is literally on the waterfront. There are metered spots, but everything was full. I ended up parking a few blocks E and walking over.
The interior feels like a converted modern warehouse. There are 2 counters — one for tasters, and one for growler fills. They also sell aluminum growlers here. The upstairs area has a nice outdoor patio, as well as shuffleboard and foosball.
The paddles are nice looking, but not too well designed. Because the drinks are located off centre, it is easy to have the entire paddle twist out of one’s grip if not careful. They’re also end-​heavy.
While I would give 4 stars to the venue, the beers were honestly a 2.5. Nothing really stuck out, and the pale ale was a bit tough to drink. My buddy felt this way too. I was planning on filling a growler after tasting the beers, but changed my mind after having the paddle. The kolsch is pretty decent though.
They do sell some food here as well, but I didn’t try.

Completely disappointed in this establishment!
One brewery in the heart of wine country is like an oasis in the middle of the Sahara. Unless of course that Oasis is just a mirage, which is exactly what this place was like! There are few things that I love more than life itself. Beer and baseball are pretty much it. This place didn’t have baseball, but the beer wasn’t much to talk about either.
In between wine tastings, we head to Tree, which I love because of their Pineapple Hef and Radler. When we walked in, we were told it would be 15 minutes as the same guy working the bar was also filling growlers… WTF??? It was the Easter long weekend and you decided to have the place short staffed? Why are small towns so dumb about these sorts of things?
When we finally get our paddles, we are overjoyed. Beer in a wine country, amazing, right?!? I wasn’t in love with the beer. My friend had the one beer I didn’t have and he accidentally didn’t save it for me. When I kindly ask the waitress for a taste, which is a standard thing in the craft beer industry, she informs me that it will be 2 bucks. I’m sorry, what’s that??? She said she couldn’t give beer away for free. If you know the economics of beer, you know that a simple splash of beer is the most minute fraction of a penny. Any and every craft beer place will gladly and openly give you a small «taste» of any beer even with you not paying for anything. Both my friend and I were flabbergasted. Did she just ask to charge us for a taste of what we were going to fill 6 litres of beer of? What the hell?
Our food was actually quite good. Service all of a sudden picked up. Seems as though everyone was on their smoke/​lunch break at the same time. The décor was awesome, the locale was great, but what the fuck, why were they charging us for the small taste of beer???
I had brought a growler with me in the event that I would fill it up with one of their fresh and tasty beers. They had a policy that you cannot hand onto your growler in the bar, so they keep it behind the desk for you. When I asked for it back and he indignantly answered me, clearly being annoyed I wasn’t filling it up, even more a reason to not patronize this joint.
Still, we go back the next day, looking to fill up a growler of beer with 4 litres. We are met with the 2 buck price for a taste of something we are clearly going to purchase, evident with our two growlers. So we turned away immediately. Let this be known: No place charges for a little taste of their beers and in fact, they don’t even expect you to purchase anything. If you are really that concerned with who is coming into your establishment and think they are a vagrant, then kick them out at once.
This place and their need to charge for a taste of beer is bs. Their beer is piss poor and I was only trying to see if the one beer I didn’t taste was worth buying. When in wine country… stick to the wine or choose another beer!

Locally made craft beer in a small, cute tasting room? You can’t go wrong! We stopped by for a quick drink this weekend, and had a very enjoyable time.
The décor is rustic-​industrial-​chic, kinda thing, with lots of wood, and large glass windows looking out at some brewing tanks. The bar sits in the middle of the room and there’s a good combination of seating, from bar stools (pro-​tip: they swivel to change height!), to a communal long table, to cosy armchairs, to individual tables. We sat at the bar, and after a minute or two of stool swivelling we sorted out the height differential! They have a store in a separate room, which is easy to miss if you’re just there to taste some beers.
I had their Dunkel, and Boyfriend had their IPA. The Dunkel was good, nice balanced flavours, and certainly something I’d get again. I sampled the Belgian before I chose the Dunkel, but it just didn’t have the flavours I look for in a Belgian style beer. My only complaint is the lack of choice — most of the beers I’ve tried before as they’re their regular styles; I’d love to see some experiments and interesting variations… That could just be the spoiled Vancouver beer snob in me talking though ;) We didn’t try the food but it looked delicious! Looking forward to trying it next time we’re in.
The décor is cool, the beer is good, and the service was excellent. I’m so happy to see places like this sprouting in Kelowna! It’s a great sign of things to come :)

They seem to care more about what it looks like inside instead focusing on the taste and quality of the beer. Maybe they’re trying too hard. Its a brewery not a winery… they need to remember that.

The unfiltered visions of the beer from the main brewery are fantastic, get a flight of 4 along with a local cheese plate, each cheese perfectly paired with the beer being served or get a pretzel made from spent grains. The the smoked beef flatbread, absolutely fantastic light meal. We’ve been here twice in the first three days it was open, and will be going back this week end.