Beer Review: Scratch 375: Coco-Nator (Troegs Independent Brewing Company)

Welcome to the first beer/brew review of The Beer Thrillers. Since this is the first of our beer reviews, we’ll be setting up a bit of a pattern here. We’ll state the name of the beer, the brewing company, the date consumed, then run down things like ABV/IBU, malts, hops, colorings, adjuncts, and other pertinent information in that regard. As well as any backstory or Untapped information on the beer. Then we’ll write up our review of the beer as well as give our rating of it, and the “global” rating of it from Untappd just for reference sake. ‘

Beer: Scratch 375: Coco-Nator

Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing Company (Hershey)

Style: Double Bock Beer (Bock – Doppelbock)

ABV: 8.2%

IBU: (No IBU Listed)
Color: Bronze

Malts: Chocolate, Munich, Pilsner

Hops: Magnum, German, Northern Brewer

Adjuncts/Additions: Cacao Nibs, Toasted Coconut, Vanilla Beans

Background Infrormation: Early this year, we gave dozens of PA homebrewers a corny keg of Troegenator wort and challenged them to come up with a creative take on our iconic Double Bock. At our first Homebrew Hang a few weeks later, we chose our favorite: Coco-Nator Imperial Brown Ale from Kristen Richards of Harrisburg. We dug her beer so much that we worked with her to scale up the recipe, brewing and canning a Scratch batch of Troegenator conditioned on cocoa nibs, vanilla beans and toasted coconut. Here’s to Kristen! (Source: Troegs Facebook page, and Scratch 375 Untappd page).

 

Consumed: May 16th, 2019 in Hummelstown PA.

 

After a long day of yard work, mowing, and generally being in the sun, this was just a nice refreshing beer to relax to as the day started drifting into night. Relaxing in my backyard with the fresh cut grass and two books to whittle away some time as I sipped on this brought a nice closure to the day.

Based off Troeg’s staple “Trogenator” this scratch series version is still very reminiscent of it’s original brethren. Coming in at the same 8.2% ABV this will pack a wallup though toned down and more deceptive than the original. (Also noted: the original Trogenator has an IBU listing of 25 whereas this one simply is listed as N/A.)

The concept behind the beer itself is a nice nod and ode to home brewing and National Home Brew Day allowing Kristen Richards to upscale her recipe for a large batch at the Troegs facility. This is a wonderful take on the Trogenator with fantastic flavors and a beautiful beer that might possibly be better than the original, if nothing else, its definitely a worthy brother.

The coconut is subdued in comparison to the vanilla bean and the cocao nibs. The vanilla bean being the most abundant in flavor profile with the cocao nibs coming in second. Whereas the original Trogenator was darker and tasted a bit heavier with the caramel and chocolate notes, this is slightly lighter, and not quite as bitter or overpowering with its flavor profile due to the lighter touches of vanilla bean and coconut.

The aroma is spot on exactly as you imagine, vanilla on the nose with hints of the coconut and an earthy doppelbock background with some of the cocao nibs and the chocolate and munich malts giving it that deep vibe to it.

The mouthfeel is perfect, a bit of a chewyness that is Bock central, but overall light and nothing off or wrong. Not watery, but with enough body to announce that its going to be a good filling and sustaining brew.

Overall, this beer comes wonderfully recommended and should be shortlisted for anyone in the Hershey/Central PA area. Its amazing to think that Troegs is at 375+ for scratch beers (remembering some of their earlier offerings that I got to try around the mid-60s) and this definitely ranks right up there with the best of their scratch beers.

 

Untappd Ranking: ****

Global Untappd Ranking: 4.05 (As of: 11PM EST 5.17.19)

 

 

-B. Kline