Troegs Brewing Company
December 2015
Tröegs Brewing Company
Have you ever watched one of those makeover shows on TV? The ones where they take someone that honestly isn’t bad looking to begin with and after working with a team of stylists and artists the person in question comes out looking so amazing that you nearly forget what he or she looked like when it all started. Well, if there was a makeover show for beer and brewery design, Tröegs Brewing out of Hershey, PA would have been the grand-prize winner. Recently Tröegs Brewing underwent a massive redesign of everything from their logo to their website to the labels for every one of their beers, giving them a fresh, clean, and consistent look across just about everything.
Along with this redesign comes a problem though. If like me you’re a huge fan of all things Tröegs, how do you find their beer now? We’ve all grown accustomed to knowing what that six-pack of Hopback or Troegenator looks like, so now with the change are we lost forever, drifing in a sea of hopelessness, simply wanting a pint of Perpetual IPA? Fear not, as the folks at Tröegs Brewing and at Vecenie Distributing tossed us a life preserver by providing us all the new artwork to share with you, the constant reader. So sit back and relax, grab a “vintage” Tröegs beer out of the fridge if you have one, and get to know the new Tröegs Brewing Company.
In the Beginning…
Before getting into what’s new, it’s worthwhile to take a quick look at where Tröegs got their start. Tröegs Brewing Company was founded in 1996 in Harrisburg, PA by the Trogner brothers John and Chris. The name Tröegs came from a combination of a nickname including their last name and the Dutch word for pub, kroeg. The first keg sold by Tröegs took place in July 1997, officially kicking off the great beer we know and love today.
Tröegs eventually outgrew the Harrisburg brewhouse and in 2011 the brewery picked up and moved to a new facility in Hershey, PA where they continue to brew today. The current brewery is nearly three times the original brewery in Harrisburg and includes a tasting room that has an amazing view of the brewhouse.
The Beers
Tröegs is known for having a solid year-round lineup of beers as well as a few seasonals that help to define their season, so to speak. While the big change here is the overall look and feel of Tröegs new packaging, there’s one other big change worth noting. Since its inception, Tröegs Brewing has made one of the best pale ales not only in PA, but possibly the US. Tröegs Pale Ale has consistently been a force to reckon with in the world of hoppy beers, but just like your favorite TV show that ends its run on a high note, so too is Tröegs Pale Ale. While we’re sad to see this go-to beer be put out to pasture, there’s an even better beer making its debut alongside the new design to take its place, and trust us, it will easily become your next go-to beer.
Solid Sender
In place of Pale Ale, Tröegs is releasing a new beer called Solid Sender Ale. This beer comes in at 5.2% ABV and a hefty 45 IBUs. Solid Sender will be available year-round in the seasonal lineup of Tröegs beers. Solid Sender features a solid base of caramel malt paired with the citrusy, floral Cascade hops.
Solid Sender pours a medium copper with aromas of piney hops, orange pith, flowering herbs, and light malt. The taste is balanced equally between the malt body and the citrus and pine hop character with a medium mouthfeel and a clean finish. While we’re sad to see Tröegs Pale Ale go, Solid Sender is far from a replacement, standing on its own as a truly amazing and unique beer.
Perpetual IPA
The one and only Tröegs Perpetual IPA will continue to be offered year-round, and rightfully so. This 7.5% ABV American IPA with a whopping 85 IBUs is dry-hopped to give it an outstanding hop aroma and a taste that’s hard to beat. Expect to get sticky citrus rind up front on this with tropical fruit, pine, and a hefty dose of bitterness in the middle, finishing up with a lightly lingering bitterness.
IPAs are one of the most interesting beers to pair with food, and Perpetual IPA is no exception. You can choose contrasting flavors like meats, aged cheese, olive oil, or caramelized sugars, or instead choose to go with complimenting flavors by choosing spicy curry dishes, coconut, citrus, grapefruit, or even mango. However you pair it, Perpetual IPA should have a…wait for it…perpetual spot in your refrigerator.
HopBack Amber Ale
Named after the device that gives this beer its unique hop character, Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale comes in at 6% ABV and 55 IBUs. The HopBack itself is a sight to behold at the brewery, and is only topped by the taste of its namesake beer. Standing 12 feet tall in the center of the Hershey brewery, Tröegs HopBack is where whole cone hops swirl in hot wort, where the delicate and amazing hop oils are released into the soon-to-be beer. This gives HopBack hints of grapefruit and pinesap in the aroma with grapefruit, caramel malt, toffee, and pine in the taste with a finish that lets the flavors linger.
Hopback makes an outstanding beer to pair with foods ranging from carrots, parsnips and rich cheeses as well as chipotle peppers, popcorn, hearty breads and caramelized fruits.
Troegenator Double Bock
What happens when monks need sustenance but don’t want to break their fasting? Simple, they brew a beer that is, for the most part, liquid bread and is known as a doppelbock, or double bock. This original beer, known as “Salvator,” or “Savior,” is still brewed today to be higher in alcohol and full of flavor. Following this long-standing tradition, most double bocks have names that end in “ator” and Tröegs’ Troegenator is no exception.
Troegenator comes in at a hefty 8.2% ABV and a nice 25 IBU. Tröegs version of the double bock is thick and almost chewy with stand-out flavors and aromas of caramel, chocolate, and dried stone fruit.
If you’d rather enjoy Troegenator with food instead of enjoying this “liquid bread” as the monks did, you’ll find that root vegetables, raw shellfish, bitter greens, nuts, smoked meat, and even vanilla ice cream pair extremely well with this “savior” of the beer world.
DreamWeaver Wheat Beer
Wheat beers are a very special kind of beer. These amazing creatures offer up flavors of black pepper, clove, and banana without adding a single spice. By utilizing the natural esters found when using special wheat beer strains of yeast, this style of beer offers a combination of depth of flavor and refreshment that’s hard to find anywhere else.
Tröegs offers their DreamWeaver Wheat Beer for those of us that love our beer on the wheat side, so to speak. DreamWeaver comes in at 4.8% ABV and a very low 15 IBU. This means DreamWeaver is just about perfect when it comes to alcohol content and the bitterness in this beer is nearly nonexistent.
You can enjoy DreamWeaver in all of its unfiltered, cloudy glory or pair it with grilled pork, fried chicken, aged cheese, basil, raw oysters, or even baked cookies and get a wild experience that’s hard to beat at any time of the year.
Java Head Stout
Wrapping things up in the year-round lineup for Tröegs is a beer that, while offered all year, seems to fit the colder winter months perfectly. For those of us that like a little coffee with our beer, Tröegs offers their Java Head Stout. This 7.5% ABV beer has a solid 60 IBUs and features everything we love about a creamy oatmeal stout with a strong dose of locally-roasted, cold-steeped coffee. Proving that the HopBack is far from a one-trick device, the coffee is infused into Java Head with the very same 12-foot tall device that gives many of Tröegs beers their unique hop character.
Java Head Stout is perfectly fine on its own, but gets even better when paired with citrus, raspberries, goat cheese, fatty meats like bacon, oats, figs, chocolate, and earthy root vegetables.
Nugget Nectar
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention possibly the most popular beer in the Tröegs lineup before signing off, and while this is a seasonal beer that’s only available starting in January until it’s all gone, it’s an amazing beer that’s worth more than just an honorable mention.
Nugget Nectar, which comes in at 7.5% ABV and a staggering 93 IBUs is many beer lovers main squeeze, and for good reason. Tröegs uses super fresh hops to brew this beer, which is technically categorized as an imperial amber ale, which gives it huge flavors of pine, resin, and mango while keeping the hefty bitterness evenly balanced from start to finish.
Possibly the most difficult beer to find in this list, you definitely need to pick up a case of this when you can, and enjoy it as son as possible, as the crazy amount of dry-hopping that this beer receives gives it an aroma and taste that’s hard to beat, and is best enjoyed fresh. In other words, get it while you can.
Tröegs Anthology
Finally, if you’re of the mindset that decisions are hard to make, Tröegs has you covered there, too. Each season they come out with a mixed 12-pack that includes a little bit of everything, including one of their small-batch Scratch beers. For the winter months the Anthology pack includes Troegenator, Perpetual IPA, The Blizzard of Hops Winter IPA, and a Scratch Series Chocolate Stout.
While the artwork may be new and the logo is refreshed, Tröegs is still the amazing brewery we’ve grown to love over the years, and thankfully the beer packaging might look different, but the beer is still the same.
Tröegs Brewing Company beers are proudly distributed in and around the Pittsburgh area by Vecenie Distributing Company.