Daily Archives: April 19, 2011

Troegs Brewery (Harrisburg, PA)

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I had the opportunity to visit the Troegs Brewery on Saturday, 16 April.  One word: Wow!

The Troegs Brewery name is a play on the owners’ name–two brothers: Chris and John Trogner.   As soon as you walk into this place, you can tell they have a passion for brewing. I had signed up for the tour about 3 weeks in advance — thank goodness!  The place was packed!  Their tasting room is retro-fitted into the active brewery.  Great atmosphere for a beer geek (and my beer geek friends!) like me/us.

As soon as we started the tour we knew it wouldn’t be like some of the others.  Why?  Because you walked through the heart of the brewery.  Check out these pictures–right in the middle of the fermentors…by the lab…around their specialty casks…with a look into the storage area/bottling line.  And if you look real close,  you will see our tour guide was one of the owners!  Awesome.

Both of the brothers were there on Saturday.  Really approachable–took the time to talk to you, answer questions.  Very nice guys.

Oh, and did I mention they have a tasting room?  All of their beers (plus some specialty ones) were available for tasting … and the price is very reasonable!  This was a great visit and a great tour!

However, if you want to experience this location, you better head there before September of 2011.  They are building a brand new, state-of-the-art facility in Hershey, PA.  For information on that, check out this link.  I think that location will be just as fun if I had to guess.  Make the effort to go … you won’t be disappointed!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

#32: Top of The Hill Brewery (#118)

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The weekend when I visited the World Beer Fest I had the chance to stop in to another place on the “All About Beer” Growler List – #118: Top of the Hill Brewery in Chapel Hill, NC.  This place is right on the corner of the University of North Carolina Campus.

This place was nice … but I wouldn’t put it on the list.  I think two reasons it is on the list: 1) because All About Beer is from this area, and 2) it is another place where the experience is better than the beer.  Like going to Indianapolis Motorspeedway and drinking bud.   You don’t mind drinking Budweiser if you are at a fantastic event!  But back to Top of the Hill.  They are definitely a brewery and they have 3 – 4 cask strength ales … so from that statement–excellent!  They only serve their beer.

I can picture myself standing in this place while March Madness is going on and drinking good beer … awesome!  However, if you want a more robust beer selection try Milltown down the street a ways (I’ll have a post on that place later).

Beer Mentor

#31: World Beer Fest (#25)

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I knocked off another entry on the All About Beer Growler List — The World Beer Fest … this one in Raleigh, NC.  During this trip we hit a couple of other great locations … in a later post.

The World Beer Fest is sponsored by All About Beer Magazine … I’m sure no conflict of interest in terms of the Growler List <smile>.  However, in fairness, this was a great event!  Reading through the World Beer Fest 2011 Guide you can see there were about 110 breweries and over 300 beers!  My friend Brian and I went through a dynamic selection process deciding which beers to try and which to skip.  We basically went for 1) local beers we couldn’t find elsewhere and 2) specialty beers from breweries with which we were already familiar.   We both put a pretty big dent in our lists — I sampled 60, Brian made it to 63.  Keep in mind that the tasting glass was a 2 oz glass … and (I know, gasp) we both poured out the ones we didn’t really care for … and there were several of those.

A brewery we did care for and was our favorite was FullSteam Brewing.

Every one of their beers we tried (it was 5 I think) were excellent!  They had one made from sweet potatoes.  There was one called Hogwash Hickory-smoked Porter.  These guys smoke their own barley.  Nice … If you are in the area, give their pub/beer a visit!  Here’s a photo we took at their “booth.”  Check out one of the owners photo-bombing in the background! LOL!

Because we were in a park under some tents the weather “can” interrupt the festivities.  It started pouring halfway through the evening and flooded one of the tents (see pics).  It didn’t stop the crowd (see other pics).

   

Great beer in a great venue … all for $40 … worth it!  Oh, and if you wanted another reason to go (guys) — think major universities in the area (UNC, Duke), short shorts and boots!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor