4 Summer-Friendly Beers From Tröeg Brewing

photo by Kevin Gibson

This PA brewery makes these crisp brews for sipping all season long

Tröegs Independent Brewing, located in Herhey, PA, started in the summer of 1997 with an eye toward experimentation and a local focus, a tradition that continues.

Founders Chris and John Trogner started with Chris brewing beer back in the early 1990s while in college in Colorado. Brother John joined him there to work toward building a presence in the rising brewpub scene, scoring a brewery job at Oasis Brew Pub in 1995.

When they time came to launch their brewery in Pennsylvania, the brothers decided to combine their surname with kroeg, the Flemish word for pub, settling on Tröegs. The Trogners would ultimately return to Hershey to open their brewery in 1997. When in 2010 the original brewery began to feel “like 20 ounces of beer in a 16 ounce pint glass,” a plan went into place to design a new brewery and taproom complex, which opened in 2011.

I recently wound up with four examples of the brewery’s most summer-friendly beers, from a classic pilsner to a hearty, 7.5% alcohol IPA. Here’s a rundown of what I found from the little brewery that is nearing a quarter of a century in the making.

Sunshine Pilsner

This one’s a pale yellow, crisp drink that fits the bill for a post-lawncare refresher or a an evening on the patio with the family. It brings classic pilsner flavor: breadiness, straw, lightly herbal notes and cleansing qualities with a distinct Saaz hop finish. An easy drinker at 4.5% alcohol.

Haze Charmer Hazy Pale Ale

By now, everyone even remotely interested has partaken of a hazy IPA. This was my first beer labeled as a hazy pale ale. This beer is a friendly 5.5% ABV, and the drinkability in its clean body reflects that. It starts with a refreshing tropical nose, with plenty of pineapple and grapefruit notes, mixed with more hints of pine than in your typical hazy IPA. The flavor profile features the hops, and to fine effect, with a nice tickle of the bitterness remaining and a nice backbone of pale malt, oats and wheat. It’s a good choice for a lover of Citra hops, which get a boost from Idaho 7 and Azacca.

Field Study IPA

Brewed with copious amounts of Pennsylvania-grown two-row and a refreshing combination of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops, this one is duly tropical from the nose to the palate. The deft blend of hops and a gentle malt belie the substantial 6.2% pop of the alcohol, making it a fine sipper or great to pair with whatever you’re grilling. Can't beat this one as a summertime go-to.

Perpetual IPA

This beer is a flagship for Tröegs, an imperial pale ale that is deceptively drinkable. Six hops go into this one through use of a HopBack vessel (which injects added hop flavor and aroma between the boil and cooling) followed by plenty of dry-hopping. The blend of hops—from Bravo to Cascade—delivers a big aroma that pays what it promises. The assertive, but not off-putting, bitterness in this ale gives way to a malty balance with tropical tones. Built for fans of the classic American IPA and should make a great partner for savory meats and aged cheeses.

The folks at Tröegs still keep up the tradition of creativity with such projects as its special small batch weekly releases called the Scratch Beer Series. And the brewery continues to search for local ingredients to use in its beers, citing availability and freshness.