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Troegs Brewing Releases Perpetual Darkness

B. Kline — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:29:00 +0000

Perpetual Darkness – Barleywine (by Troegs Independent Brewing) (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing Company)

Troegs Brewing Releases Perpetual Darkness

What if? Thats a question that gets asked a lot around Troegs Brewery in Hershey, PA. Answering these What If questions is how many of your favorite beers from the brewery have been made. Perpetual Darkness is no different.

Releasing today – December 7th, 2023 – Perpetual Darkness makes its return. An American style Barleywine, its one of the better barleywines in the Central PA area.

As per their Facebook announcement of it:

What if? It’s a question we often ask around here. What if Perpetual were a sort of dirty blonde barleywine? What if we toned down the bitterness but turned up the sticky citrus notes? Enter Perpetual Darkness, a hoppy candy bar gone wild with a silky body and an herbal, resiny finish. We taste: overripe grapefruit, grassy herbs, candied orange. Only available here at the brewery this Thursday in 16-oz cans. troegs.com/visit #Troegs #PerpetualDarkness #Barleywine
Tröegs Independent Brewing – Facebook Post

Personally this is an absolutely fantastic Barleywine, and a great beer all around. I always look forward to its release and try and stock up on it when it comes out. Not enough breweries do barleywines, and its one of my absolute favorite styles.

For more information on Perpetual Darkness, lets check Untappd:

Perpetual Darkness

Beer: Perpetual Darkness
Brewery: Tröegs Independent Brewing
Style: Barleywine – American
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: 54
Untappd Description: What if? It’s a question we often ask around here. What if Perpetual were a sort of dirty blonde barleywine? What if we toned down the bitterness but turned up the sticky citrus notes? Enter Perpetual Darkness, a hoppy candy bar of an IPA gone wild with a silky body and an herbal, resiny finish. We taste: overripe grapefruit, grassy herbs, candied orange
Untappd Ratings: 2,200+ (as of 12.7.23)
Global Untappd Rating: 3.92 (as of 12.7.23)
My Untappd Rating: ****.5

Other Releases

Troegs Independent Brewing is also releasing two more beers today as well. They are releasing Scratch 506 – Lager, as well as the Ales for ALS beer. Look for all three of these at the brewery at 200 Hersheypark Drive, Hershey PA.

For More Information on Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

According to Untappd, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing is a regional brewery with 157 unique beers listed (despite their being over 500 Scratches). They have 2.3 Million ratings and as of 12.7.23 have a global average rating of 3.79. Their Untappd bio reads:

“Founded in Pennsylvania in 1997 by brothers John and Chris Trogner, Tröegs Independent Brewing is driven by a sense of adventure and curiosity. Our brewery has been built by family, friends and kindred spirits who share a love of great beer. Together, we all make Tröegs. You might know our Perpetual IPA, the best-selling IPA in Pennsylvania. Or the dark, malty and crisp Troegenator. You may have come across such iconic beers as Nugget Nectar or Mad Elf in your beer travels. Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to try one or two of the hundreds of experimental Scratch Series beers we’ve brewed over the years. Whether you’re already a member of our extended family or you’re just getting to know our brewery, there’s always something new to discover with Tröegs.“

You can find them at the following social media pages:

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Troegs Independent Brewing is Releasing Scratch 500 and Scratch 501 – Double Perpetual IPA and Triple Perpetual IPA

B. Kline — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 14:35:00 +0000

(Article Updated to include new photos.)

Troegs Independent Brewing Is Hitting a Milestone

Who would have guessed when Troegs Independent Brewing started their unique scratch system – their version of research and development – that here we would be; at Scratches 500 and 501

In recent years they’ve been pumping them out nearly weekly between their Scratch System and their even smaller R & D Scratch System. Leading up to their Oktoberfest Week they released several scratches all at once – Scratch 497: Schwarzbier, Scratch 498: Lemon Lime Radler, and one – that John Trogner himself said they would never make – Scratch 499: Rauchbier (a smoked beer).

Feels like it was just yesterday and I was drinking the Scratch 400 and reviewing it: Scratch 400 – Pre-Prohibition Lager. And here we are, three years later, celebrating the release of scratch 500 (and 501).

Scratches 500 and 501 will both be released on Thursday, October 19th, 2023 at the Troegs Brewery on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey, PA.

Scratch 500: Double Perpetual IPA

Scratch number 500 is Double Perpetual IPA. Take the Perpetual IPA you love… and double it! (Well, more like 1.5x it… for a real double Perpetual IPA… we’ll get to that in a bit).

Double Perpetual IPA will be clocking in at around 9-9.8% ABV. (Perpetual IPA is 7.5% ABV.) Double Perpetual IPA will be a brewery exclusive release on October 19th, 2023.

This is being both canned and kegged, so there will be four packs and cases, as well as draft at the brewery. Unlike the debacle that was the nightmarish release of the first batch of Double Nugget Nectar – this release; Double Perpetual IPA – will most likely have some sort of case or four pack limit.

Over the course of the run of Scratch Series Beers – numerous beers have “graduated” to become full fledged beers. Like Grand Cacao, Haze Charmer, Nimble Giant, and most recently Cyclops Teardrops.

Perpetual IPA (the original, the singular, the highest selling IPA in Pennsylvania) was one of the very first graduates of the Scratch Series and the research and development system used by Troegs Independent Brewing.

Expect this beer to have even more citrus, even more sticky and piney notes, and be even MORE Perpetual… it’ll be DOUBLE PERPETUAL!

Scratch 500: Double Perpetual IPA with original Perpetual IPA (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing)

Scratch 501 – Triple Perpetual IPA

Did you think Double Perpetual IPA was enough? No way! We need a Triple Perpetual IPA!

If you thought Perpetual IPA was a big IPA at 7.5% ABV…. and then if you thought Double Perpetual IPA at 9-9.8% ABV was a BIG BIG IPA…. then wait til you get ahold of Triple Perpetual IPA… rocking in somewhere from the 11 – 13 % ABV range (or so the legends go).

All of your favorite hops from Perpetual IPA – Cascade, Chinook, Nugget, and Citra are ramped up to the max for this big strong, powerful (triple) IPA.

This will be kegged only, and be released on draft only at the Troegs Brewery. You will be able to get crowlers and growler fills of it to go.

You can look for Triple Perpetual IPA to be released October 19th, 2023 when the Troegs Brewery opens at 11:30 AM.

For More Information on Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

According to Untappd, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing is a regional brewery with 148 unique beers listed (despite this release putting them over scratch batch number 500). They have 2.3 Million ratings and as of 10.09.23 have a global average rating of 3.79. Their Untappd bio reads:

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Troegs Brewing Adding Graffiti Highway IPA and DIPA

B. Kline — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 13:55:16 +0000

Graffiti Highway Double IPA (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing)

Graffiti Highway IPA (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing)

Troegs Brewing Adding Graffiti Highway IPA and DIPA

On the upcoming release schedule Troegs Brewing is going to be releasing Graffiti Highway IPA and Graffiti DIPA.

They are likely to come out as scratches first, then be finalized into one time beer releases.

Graffiti Highway IPA

Graffiti Highway IPA (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing)

The above is the release image for Graffiti Highway IPA. It is likely to come in at 6% ABV, and will be released in 12 oz cans. There is a barcode with the above can label and artwork, so it will likely be seeing distribution and won’t be in house only. But look for it to be released at the Troegs Brewery on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey, PA soon.

Graffiti Highway DIPA

Graffiti Highway Double IPA (photo courtesy of Troegs Independent Brewing)

Graffiti Highway Double IPA is also a future release that Troegs Brewing is planning on doing. Not sure if it will be released paired with Graffiti Highway IPA or if it will be a separate release. But Graffiti Highway Double IPA is projected at being a 9.5% ABV DIPA.

These both look to be fruit-forward hazy IPAs.

The Graffiti Highway IPA is looking to be released in 12 oz cans, and interestingly the Graffiti Highway DIPA is looking to be released in the 19.2 oz cans – and possibly tied in with a specialty koozie (foam can sleeve) that is designed for 19.2 oz cans.

(You can read more about 19.2 oz cans here: Unlocking Flavor and Branding: The Rise of 19.2-Ounce Craft Beer Cans.)

For More Information on Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

According to Untappd, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing is a regional brewery with 148 unique beers listed (despite their being over 500 Scratches). They have 2.3 Million ratings and as of 10.1.23 have a global average rating of 3.79. Their Untappd bio reads:

You can find them at the following social media pages:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

Beer Review: Scratch 400 Pre-Prohibition Lager (Troegs Independent Brewing)

BKline — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 14:53:43 +0000

Troegs Independent Brewing’s 400th scratch beer. Released on January 16th, Prohibition Day.

This is a monumental beer, and a monumental achievement, and it was released on a monumental day. This is Troegs Independent Brewing’s 400th scratch beer on their scratch system. Not their 400th beer released in total, just their 400th scratch. A very significant feat, and given the improvements they’ve made to their scratch system (and upgrades in general to their brewery) I don’t think it’ll take us long at all to get to Scratch 500. I know I personally can’t wait.

Just like I’m finally publishing this article on a significant date (2.2.20, palindrome day, Groundhog’s Day, Super Bowl LIV Sunday), this beer was released on a significant date – January 16th (2020). January 16th is known as “Prohibition Day”.

Let’s take a quick look at the history of it, from our favorite historical perspective news source – Wikipedia:

In the United States, after the battle against slavery was won (and even prior to it with the 1851 Maine law), social moralists turned to other issues, such as Mormon polygamy and the temperance movement.^[11][12][13]
On November 18, 1918, prior to ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary Wartime Prohibition Act, which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28%.^[14] (This act, which had been intended to save grain for the war effort, was passed after the armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11, 1918.) The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30, 1919, with July 1, 1919 becoming known as the “Thirsty-First”.^[15][16]
The U.S. Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16, 1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920.^[17][18]
On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson‘s veto. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them.^[19] Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it.
Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, cirrhosis death rates, admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis, arrests for public drunkenness, and rates of absenteeism.^[5][20][21] While some allege that Prohibition stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread criminal activity,^[22] two academics maintain that there was no increase in crime during the Prohibition era and that such claims are “rooted in the impressionistic rather than the factual.”^[23][24] By 1925, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs in New York City alone.^[25] Wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime.^[26]
On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. On December 5, 1933, ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. However, United States federal law still prohibits the manufacture of distilled spirits without meeting numerous licensing requirements that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal beverage use.^[27]
Source: Prohibition in the United States (Wikipedia)

And thank goodness that madness has ended. Not going to go into the politics of it all and not really going to discuss the politics of the time (or now) as I like to keep this blog readable for all. But I think everyone reading this blog can agree on this one thing – Prohibition was a bad idea.

So thankfully that horrific time is over, and thankfully its now 2020, and we can enjoy fantastic and wonderful beers like this Scratch 400 from Troegs. (See how I segued that? Like a champ!) And this really is a wonderful and tasty brew from Troegs, regardless of the significance behind the numeration. If this was Scratch 1, 400, 69, or 285, it wouldn’t matter, it’d still be a great drink.

I started this article up on the night of January 16th after my date night with my youngest (six at the time, just now turned seven the other day). But this was written during the blog’s getting ready for the Mellow Mink article going live, and so I pushed it back, and figured today’s important numerical (2.02.20 – palindrome day!) significance would be a more meaningful time to publish this. (I wrote the beer review then, everything else being written now.)

So, February 2nd, 2020, Groundhog’s day seems like a very appropriate time to be posting this article. And heres another segue – I wouldn’t mind if this was the beer I was drinking if I had to be stuck on a time loop on Groundhog’s Day.

So, in honor of Punxsutawney Phil lets move on and review this beer!

Scratch 400 by Troegs. Mara approved! (And no, she didn’t drink any. She does approve of the fries though, and the water.)

Beer: Scratch 400 – Pre-Prohibition Lager
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Lager – American
ABV: 4.3%
IBU: None listed
Untappd Write-Up: For our 400th Scratch beer, we’re turning back the clock for a pre-Prohibition lager, and we pulled a few extra levers to let our house lager yeast shine. For starters, we included blue corn grown in Imler, Pa., in the malt bill. Blue corn, floury and high in protein, lowers the free amino nitrogen in the wort, which elevates the esters of the yeast. We also open fermented this beer, an old-world technique we use for every batch of DreamWeaver Wheat. This also helps to bring out the yeast flavor. A session Troegenator? We like the sound of that. We taste: notes of corn, dried stone fruit, and subtle caramel and nuttiness.

A session Troegenator might be a great way to describe this. Far lighter, thinner, definitely lower ABV (only 4.3% !) and certainly less heavy then Troegenator. But that doesn’t take away anything from this beer though either.

Appearance is a beautiful chestnut, light brown, clearish hue. This is finely filtered, there’s no particles, no sediment, no haze, no dankness, nothing opaque, just a nice fine, well crafted, well brewed lager. Its not completely see through, but it has definite clarity and is somewhat transparent. It has a fine head with diverse bubbles, and the head retention is strong, it also leaves beautiful lacing on the tall boy glass that Troegs serves this gorgeous beer in.

Aroma is wheat and corn heavy. You get almost an acorn smell, a very heavy farm field to it (in a good way, not in a knee-deep in ‘cow patties’ kind of farm field smell). A nice rainy day aroma where you can smell the wheat, barley, grass growing. Something only a ‘good ol’ local boy’ might be able to rightly describe to you, and even then it wouldn’t be precise. This is a more subtle beer smell then some of those big macro Lagers that just have that stale, old, unwanted beer smell. The smell most of us grew up on smelling off grandpa’s breath at the family reunions and parties. Whereas this smells homely, crafted, and far better.

This is what Yuengling should pretty much be. An old fashion style, old fashion created, and old fashion lager. Germanic pride in the glass right here. Its malty, its corny, it has a bit of a nutty taste, its kind of heavy on the palate but also a bit thinner then say the Troegenator, it does still have a full body to it, and despite its only 4.3% ABV its still a hearty beer. It does have an ending sweetness to it, nothing cloying, but a fine stickyness that hangs to your palate and tongue. Nothing in a bad way about that, it just provides a nice ending sweetness. The open fermentation, the house yeast strain, and the PA home grown blue corn, definitely gives this a flavor all to its own. A uniqueness to it thats not going to be reproduced outside of using these exact means. I get notes of acorn, corn, nuttyness, malt, some sweetness from caramel malts, maybe kind of a plum like note to it, wrapping up all very nicely. This is a fine tasting brew I wouldn’t mind them possibly tweaking a bit, or keeping even as is, and releasing yearly on January 16th (or approximate) as a small seasonal run. It would most likely do well, and could have a catchy name like “Prohibition Lager” or “America’s Lager” or “Before The World Went Crazy Lager”. Eh, who knows about good names, actually, you know who does? Ffej, with his Fuzzy Nudge. Now thats how you name a beer! Either way, what I *DO KNOW* is that this is a fine tasting beer, that won’t last much longer at Troegs, and was a very significant beer for them, and for all of us fans of Troegs and fans in the Central PA area. So make sure you stop by Troegs brewery, drink up, and enjoy before its gone!

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.82 (as of 1.17.20)
Updated Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 2.2.20)

To read up even more on Scratch 400, you can check out Derek Markel’s excellent article over at ItsABrewLife: Troegs Scratch #400 & Beyond. ItsABrewLife is a wonderful blog written by Derek and Chelsea Markel. They are wonderful writers and a great influence on the scene in Central PA. She’s one of the co-founders of Harrisburg Beer Week, and he is an accomplished homebrewer who makes some delicious beers. So definitely pop over there and read this excellent article.

Here at the blog, we’ve been super busy as always. I’ve been writing nonstop it seems in the last few days. Beer reviews for This Is The Way by Broken Goblet, my series of Tree House beers – Sap, Autumn, Haze, Julius, and Doppelganger. Our beer review of Scarlet Sunrise by Mellow Mink, as well as our visit to Mellow Mink. The sad news of Crystal Ball’s Closing in York PA. Beer review of Hill Farmstead’s Florence. Also been doing several podcasts, LOST Seasons 1 and 2, LOST Seasons 3 and 4, Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian, and possibly soon one on the final season of BoJack Horseman. We also have much more content coming out, more beer reviews, visits to breweries, openings, an article on Liquid Noise opening in Marysville PA, an article on the progress of Rubber Soul opening in Hummelstown PA, and much more. So please be on the lookout for all of that great content. Click the follow here. Use the RSS feed to follow us or enter your e-mail, or if you already have a WordPress account, you can sign right up with that (probably the easiest way to get our blog).

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Also, if you ever check out FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs, you’ll see we are currently sitting in the #9 position now since January 15th. (Previously we were #11). We are super proud to be in the Top 10. (Especially since #3 and #4 are the same link, so I guess that sort of, pseudo, technically, maybe, makes us really #8… I dunno.) So give that a click, and then click on us coming back, show them how much you love us!

As you can see in the pictures here, this was my daddy-daughter date night with my youngest. She absolutely loves Troegs. She loves the smell of the brewery (as does my ten year old) as soon as we get in. I picked her up from an after-school function. Took her to the Hershey Library, she picked out two books, and then we had dinner at Troegs. We read her books, she devoured her fries (which, by the way, Troegs has some of the absolute best fries ever) and I enjoyed Scratches 399 and 400. Both were fantastic beers, and Mara had a great night. The laid back atmosphere of Troegs is a nice family-friendly place, that all three of my daughters love coming to. If you are ever in the area, and never been here, I highly recommend it. Yes it gets pretty full in the summer time and with lots of kids from the park, but its still worth at least a one time visit.

Scratch 399 (left) and Scratch 400 (right) at Troegs Brewery

And as always, we greatly appreciate all of you, our fine readers. Thank you so much for stopping in, checking us out, and giving us a read. We hope you liked what you read and choose to stick around and check out our other articles. We have tons of stuff here on the blog, from beer reviews, to home brewing stuff with Default Brewing, to some guest writing from LetUsDrinkBeer’s blog and their contributions, to brewery reviews, beer events, even some book reviews, and much more.

Final note, tonight’s the Super Bowl, or technically as everyone who isn’t the NFL has to call it “The Big Game”. San Fransisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs. It should be a good game. I am going against the grain, and thinking it’ll be low scoring, and I’m predicting San Fran 21 to Kansas City’s 10.

So you heard that here folks, that as of 9:42AM, I, B. Kline, predict this as your Super Bowl LIV Final Score:

San Fransisco 49ers: 21
Kansas City Chiefs: 10

Leave your thoughts, comments, score predictions, and other esoteric antics (call back to the podcast!) in the comments section. Love to hear from you all. We greatly appreciate all the feedback we get. It means so much to us! Cheers, and thank goodness that ground hog saw no shadow! Spring is clearly on its way, rodent meteorology for the win!

-B. Kline

Scratch Number 400

Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)

BKline — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 22:56:54 +0000

My flight of beers from Troegs on Thanksgiving Eve – Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf.

‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving,
And all of Troegs was all-a-bustle,
So loud was the taproom,
That nobody even heard The Great Turkey,
There were friends and families commingling,
There was new friends and old friends all meeting,
For it was the night before Thanksgiving,
When The Great Turkey appears,
And all who are grateful hold each other so dear,
The day before the consumerism takes over for Black Friday,
And thousands of ‘craft beer seekers’ go running for Goose Island Beers,
But on this day, at this time, it was the night before Thanksgiving,
And with a mighty big cheer, one and all shouted:

“HAPPY DRINKSGIVING!”

So, after working a very stressful day on Wednesday, and before going home, I stopped at Troegs where normally I would pick up essentials for Thanksgiving (ie. the cranberry porter scratch beer); but alas, this year there was no cranberry scratch beer made, so I contented myself with ordering a flight, enjoying it, and then going home and running some errands with my daughters.

Unfortunately given my job, I don’t get ‘extra days off’ or even get holidays off unless they fall on my natural days off – and my natural days off are Thursday and Friday. So at least, each year, I have one holiday off – Thanksgiving. And as I said in the previous blog post – my review of Azathoth – my plans were the in-laws followed up by my sister’s.

But on this Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, it was me time, and it was Troegs time. So I ordered a flight – Scratch #394 Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale, Scratch #395 Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale, Scratch #396 Dry Hopped Pale Ale, and Mad Elf.

I’m only going to go over Mad Elf lightly, as I may/may not do a full review on Mad Elf. The thing about Mad Elf is that its the staple and the one that put Troegs on the map. While Nugget Nectar and Nimble Giant might be their best beers, its really Mad Elf that got Troegs known, and what everyone really knows them for, and why people flock to the brewery in Fall/Winter. So, on one hand I want to review it because its so popular, and well known, and on the other, thats precisely why I don’t want to review it. I tend to stay away from doing the staples, the beers that have been made for 15+ years, the beers that are the flagship ultra-known beers. But, I think there is a place for these beers to be reviewed as well, so I’m going to be flipping a coin about a hundred times in the next few days to decide if I should do it.

Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale – by Troegs Brewing

Beer: Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: We’re aiming to add a fourth beer to our Tart & Fruit Series sometime down the road, so we’ve been testing new fruit combinations on our Scratch system. For this week’s release, we’re betting on sweet and juicy mangoes. Tangerine adds depth to the fruit profile, a hint of lime adds a citrusy kick, and a dash of sea salt amplifies the refreshing flavors. We taste: ripe mango, sweet citrus, hint of lime.

Appearance is light, shiny, see-through translucent, sour (non-smoothie sour) looking, clear, and crisp. It has the light yellow straw coloring. A thin head. Nice bubbles.

Aroma is fruity through and through. You get instant notes of mango and tangerine. You can a subtle hint of lime, and some citrus. But upfront its all mango and tangerine. It has an overall tart smell to it that you expect.

Taste is a tart kick in the teeth. It is tart, it is tasty, it is crisp, it is refreshing. Its a mixture of all of these things all rolled up in so much and in so small a space, its a wonderful explosion. The mango and tangerine work really well together, and the lime provides a nice kick especially at the end of the drink. Its like at HersheyPark with those new soda machines that let you add flavors to regular sodas (love doing grape and lime with mountain dew).

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.71 (as of 11.29.19)

Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale

Beer: Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: This week’s small-batch Scratch release is all about fruit. Guava, an aromatic fruit grown in the tropics, lays down a backbone of juicy pear and mango notes, and fresh passionfruit pulls in a pleasantly sweet-and-tart tang. Pineapple adds refreshing tropical notes that are amplified by the Horninal Kveik yeast, and a dash of cherry juice gives this beer a soft pink hue. We taste: fresh guava and passionfruit, juicy pineapple, pleasant tartness.

Wow, this is an interesting one to even begin on. On all three fronts (well, at least on aroma and taste; the appearance is pretty clear cut). Its dark, its hazy, and its dank. Its sour, but it has the sour – smoothie style look, though its not really a smoothie, and its not really thick despite its appearance.

Aroma is a bomb of fruity notes. Just like scratch 394, this one is all over the place as well. I think this concoction is a bit too much though. And perhaps its just me with Guava, but I’ve had it in a few now – Wolf Prints (review here) and Fatum Guava (review here) – as well as others, like Tattered Abomination, some various Troegs scratch one-offs, etc. ….and the more and more I have guava in a beer…. I think I’m becoming less and less of a fan of it. There is just too much to it and it dilutes and changes the taste and aroma of the beer too much. And for this one, it has to compete with passionfruit (one I like), pineapple (one I’m indifferent to) and cherry (one I’m not a big fan of in beer). So this concoction of a beer has a lot to it, and so much competing notes.

And taste is the same way as the above. There is almost too much here. Its not altogether bad, it is certainly different, and it is certainly a lot to take in. There is the passionfruit and pineapple, and the guava, and the cherry, and its all mixed up in a thick tart sour. The passionfruit and guava take center stage, with the pineapple and cherry kind of playing backburner. But there is just so much here, that it is kind of overwhelming. The tartness is nice, and the flavors aren’t abhorrent, but its just a lot.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 11.29.19)

Scratch 396 – Dry Hopped Pale Ale by Troegs Independent Brewing

Beer: Scratch 396 – Dry Hopped Pale Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: We’re starting to fine-tune an aromatic hop combination that we’re planning to use for something special down the road. This Scratch pale ale showcases Citra, Idaho 7, Chinook and Azacca. Look for notes of passionfruit, orange, grapefruit and subtle white pine. London 3 yeast will keep the beer dry and allow subtle malt and nut notes to come forward.
We taste: passionfruit, citrus rind, white pine

Appearance is similar to the above scratch 395, a thick, orange yellow beer color. The amount of hop in it creates the dank, heavy-set look to it, and it is certainly that. Its got a juicy, thick, hazy, sediment free, dank near-IPA like orange glow to it.

Aroma is pretty hop strong. You get the notes of the Chinook, Citra, and Azacca hops upfront. This is where you get the notes of passionfruit, orange, grapefruit, melon rinds. Its a bright powerful hop burst inside your nostrils.

Taste is juicy, but it has a dry component to it. Its got a very strong finish to it, and its got a nice thick mouthfeel. It is only 5.5% so its barely alcoholic, and you won’t get a big buzz from this, but you will get that sweet hoppy tiredness. This is bursting at the seams with hoppy goodness. You get the citra and chinook fruity citrus hop notes, and the azacca is similar just a bit more muted. There is flavor of passionfruit, orange, not much grapefruit, but I get a little bit of pine and some melon rinds. Its a nice finish that lingers on the tongue very well.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.86 (as of 11.29.19)

Mad Elf by Troegs Independent Brewing

This is going to be a quick, brief, glossing over of this. As I’m pretty certain I’ll be doing my own review for Mad Elf. A beer I’ve had regularly, quite often, and nearly religiously now every year for the past 10-11 years. I’ll do much more in-depth on it, and I’ll do some discussion on its history, as well as the off-shoot variants of it like Naked Elf and Wild Elf (as well as the Grand Cru).

Beer: Mad Elf
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: The holidays at Tröegs start with our inner Mad Elf momentarily taking over the brew deck. So blame “him” for this cheerful ruby red creation brewed with honey, cherries and Belgian yeast reminiscent of cinnamon, clove and allspice.

So lets just say, this was my first Untappd check-in. This was how I fully got introduced to Troegs back in the day, (back in their Paxton Street days) before the move from Harrisburg to Hershey. Every year Troegs splurges and puts out the money to get a badge for this on Untappd as well (or at least usually every year).

I will say a cautionary note on the beer, I’ve become less and less in love with it as I’ve gotten older, as I’ve had more different and various craft beers, and as the brewing system at Troegs has grown, changed, and evolved. I’ve left my original rating for the beer what it was when I first had it, and was a pretty naive beer drinker – a five star beer. Each year’s vintage, I check in fresh, and then later on when I drink an aged bottle of it. And I give a different rating for it fresh; as well as for it aged. So if you look through my vintages and my actual Mad Elf ratings, you’ll notice a fluctuation in changes almost per time I drink it. Is this a five star beer? Probably not. And its definitely not anymore. Is it still a very good beer? I think so. Was it ever a five star beer? Probably not. Is there really any five star beers? Eh. Thats a matter of debate and dispute. What constitutes five star? For movies, for literature, for wrestling matches, for everything, five star either symbolizes complete perfection, or the extreme best. It depends on the critic, the rating system, those involved, the time of day, mood, etc. There is just so many factors. If I had this beer now, for the first time, I think it would be consistent with whatever I give the vintage for that year.

Some stats:

My Mad Elf Untappd Rating: ***** (like I said above, for why, and why it hasn’t changed in the system)
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 11.29.19)

My Mad Elf 2019 Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.12 (as of 11.29.19)

My Mad Elf 2018 Untappd Rating: – Fresh – ****.25 – Aged – ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.06 (as of 11.29.19)

I will break down some of these statistics, and my full thoughts on the beer, more thoroughly when I do the full Mad Elf review. So please look for that. I would really appreciate hearing all of everyone’s thoughts on Mad Elf, it is a very interesting beer to discuss with craft beer enthusiasts.

Until that time, cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Multiple Beer Reviews: Scratch 382 – Blackberry Lime Tart Ale, Scratch 383 – Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy & Simcoe), Dear Peter, and Naked Elf (Troegs Brewing Company)

BKline — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 03:55:00 +0000

Flight of beers I had when stopping by Troegs in my pursuit of procrastination.

So what do we got here? Oooh, a flight you say. Nope! What we have here is “procrastination”. (Its one of those big words that grownups use and do, but kids just call ‘being lazy’ and ‘having fun’.)

This is what I *WAS* doing while I *WAS* …. *SUPPOSED* to be mowing the yard inside my fence, finishing my errands, doing yard work, weeding, or doing my writing about this blog. Instead of all of those “fun” things…. I was sitting under the awning in the beer garden area of Troegs Brewing Company at Hershey on HersheyPark Drive (or Airport Road if you’re 55+) drinking this wonderful and delicious flight and reading about Fashion from Madeleine Albright (oops, I mean Fascism… crap this isn’t the book I was expecting it to be!).

Oh, and nerd out moment, I was also sending this Tweet: https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/status/1154835766213824512 (which got re-Tweeted by Troegs: https://twitter.com/TroegsBeer/status/1154847303255109635). So there was that “nerd out” moment for me, and now I can finally say “research done, project completed” and be able to link this up to Twitter and complete some massive Twitter inception (Tweetception?) like I did when I re-tweeted the re-tweet of the original tweet. (Yea, I’m new to Twitter, and didn’t know that was a thing or that it could be done. I feel like this could be a vicious cycle that would never be completed until one of the two parties ceased to be….. if only we would just continue for all of eternity re-tweeting the same tweet back and forth amongst each other.)

Once again, I found myself at Troegs (was running errands in the area, and was actually supposed to stop at the Hershey Public Library — support your local libraries people — but managed to run out of time due to drinking and reading, so needless to say the mowing didn’t happen, the hop harvest didn’t happen, and the trip to the Hershey Public Library didn’t happen). But what I did find was that the flight system which was going through a revamping process last time I was here, has now completed its revamping. While in line, or at your table, or at the bar, you can grab a slip of paper and write down the 4 beers you want to make a flight of. You are then given those four beers on their little circles of paper. You pay per beer and based on what the beer is. (From my flight, Scratches 382 and 383 as well as Naked Elf were 2.50$ and Dear Peter was 3.75$.) The chalkboard says 8$-15$ for the flight. (All of the beers were listed at at least 2.50$ for 4oz pours, today anyway, so minimum flight would be 10$, plus the minimum 2$ tip you should be leaving, don’t be cheapskates people, so minimum the flight should run you 12$ and possibly maximum of 17-18$).

Not sure if I prefer this style of flight system as compared to their previous 3 for 6$, but time will tell. I did enjoy seeing Dear Peter and a few other (Blackberry Tizzy) cork and cage Splinter/Foeder series on the 4oz listings for flights, so thats nice.

My original intent for stopping in was to grab a 4pk of Naked Elf and a 4pk of Fuzzy Nudge. I was half denied and half accomplished – Naked Elf was plentiful, but Fuzzy Nudge was sold out in cans, but was on tap. (I have found someone getting me a 4pk, so no worries people, I will get to enjoy the Ffej peach beer, and I will give it a review.)

Naked Elf is one of my favorite beers that Troegs makes, and I look forward to it every year. (Moreso than Mad Elf, especially the older I get, and the more styles, and beers, and flavors, and experience I have, I find myself liking Mad Elf less, but loving Naked Elf more. I still find myself loving the crap out of Nimble Giant and Nugget Nectar, so my Troegs love has definitely not waned too much.)

Let’s dig into this flight.

Scratch 382 – Blackberry Lime Sour Tart Ale

A beautiful beer usually means it tastes (beautiful?) good! And that adage holds up here completely.

Beer: Scratch 382 – Blackberry Lime Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 5%
Untappd Write-Up: For Scratch #382, we’re doubling down on a combination of blackberries and lime. The tartness of the limes and a first fermentation with lactobacillus is supported by a rich backbone of oats and honey malt. A strong second fermentation with Hornindal Kveik yeast adds subtle notes of pineapple and pushes the ABV to 5%.
We taste: earthy berries, lime zest, tart citrus.

Well the write-up is definitely spot on with the tastings of berry, lime zest, and tart citrus. For my notes I already had written down about how much the blackberry shines through, how the lime gives it a great zesty sting to the beer, and that there is a great tart to sour backbone with a fruity citrus to it — and this was all before I even looked it up on Untappd (shocking I figured out something like that on my own!).

Appearance is a beautiful pretty off-reddish coloring typical of fruited beers, specifically fruited sours. The carbonation is right, the glass is clean, and the appearance is just stunning.

Aroma is very heavy berry with some of the lime sneaking past the blackberries. A wonderful cocktail assaulting my nose hairs (they do need trimmed a bit).

From initial sip you get a powerful earthy blackberry taste that immediately gets punched through by zest-lime sting. As you sip and enjoy, you begin to pucker a little bit, feeling that tart kick in, with a fruity citrus flavor that does nothing but add to the beer. When Troegs really wants to work on a sour, they can do them wonderfully, and this scratch definitely showcases their abilities at sours. I would love to see them do a lot more in this vein.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88 (as of 7.26.19)

Scratch 383 – Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy & Simcoe)

Three wonderful hops that work in a great TriForce of hop glory: Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe. And no, I’m not breaking that nerd bit down into smaller bits, just enjoy that call-out for those who know and get the reference.

Beer: Scratch 383 – Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy & Simcoe)
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.4%
IBU: (blank)
Hops: Simcoe, Citra, Galaxy
Untappd Write-Up: This hazy take on an IPA is the first time we’ve explored this hop combination. Of course, we know Simcoe’s creamsicle notes from Nugget Nectar and Citra’s citrusy profile from Perpetual IPA. Galaxy, an Australian hop variety we haven’t used a lot, brings in notes of juicy fruit. Dry-hopping earlier in fermentation transforms the expected hop profile and leads us toward grapefruit and passionfruit, and oats in the malt bill add texture and body to support the hops.
We taste: grapefruit rind, passionfruit, bubblegum

I am surprised to see that this is Troeg’s first usage of Simcoe, Galaxy, and Citra together, just on the basis alone of the amount of IPAs they’ve produced, I almost have to think they’ve ran through every combination of hops by this point (obviously being facetious here). But this combination definitely works wonders, and hopefully we’ll see them explore it more and use it more.

The appearance looks a little less hazy than some true hazy IPAs I’ve had recently or had in general, but it still falls on the hazy spectrum as far as IPAs go and appearances. A nice orange-straw hazy concoction.

Aroma is very hoppy. A strong punch of the more floral and fruity hop notes with the dankness of the Simcoe hops. Grapefruit, sweet and sticky fruit, bit of mango, and that ‘dank’ for lack of better words hop smell all mix and combine here.

Taste is very much same vein as the aroma. I didn’t pick up any bubblegum like the Untappd notes suggest, but I did get a bit of sweetness behind the hops. Almost in a cloying way but not quite that strong at it. The mouthfeel is very nice and while on the more heavier side of IPAs its not too strong or lingering. The hops do deliver on notes of grapefruit, mango, floral hop, and the grassyness that can come from Simcoe.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.99 (as of 7.26.19)

Dear Peter, a Warning or a Difficult Art?

Dear Peter comes from the Splinter series that Troegs does (the old Flying Mouflan, Impending Descent, Master of Pumpkins), now represented with the cork and caged beers that come from those giant Foeders that you can see as you drive down HersheyPark Drive on your way to becoming “HersheyPark Happy” with three screaming girls after eight hours in 90+ degree summer heat with a real-feel index of 114 as you stand in line waiting for the SkyRush or Great Bear on asphalt…. Sorry for the digression…. But the new Foeder beers like Dear Peter, Farmette, Blackberry Tizzy, Freaky Peach, etc, have produced some wonderful beers (my favorite being the Blackberry Tizzy). Typically Troegs has done these as just the bottles (13$ a pop) and they didn’t appear in kegs to be on draft, or to be used for the flights. So it was certainly a nice surprise to see this one up on the chalkboard, so I jumped on it (I believe this is the last of the Foeder beers for me to try.)

Beer: Dear Peter
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: American Wild Ale
ABV: 6%
IBU: 9
Untappd Write-Up: Dear Peters family… We heard about the nectarines that were bruised in a hailstorm. Well, what won’t work at a roadside stand will be aces for brewing. We’re picturing a bracing sour with a sweet over-ripe nose. Brett for funk, lacto for pucker, and a spell on oak to bring it all home. Those nectarines? We’ll take ’em all!

This was certainly sour, and in a completely wonderful way. Nectarines aren’t done a whole lot in beers, its mostly mangos, peaches, oranges, blood oranges, etc, seems the little step-child Nectarine gets forgotten about most times.

The appearance is a beautiful honey-brown coloring. You can tell it spent some time in wood and it looks wonderful for it all.

Aroma is heavy fruit, but you also get an immediate impression that there is something funky with it, like you can just smell the sour exuding from the beer.

This probably ranks up there with the first generation/batch of Wild Elf (yes, I’ll be “that guy” and say the generations/batches after the first weren’t as good) and Blackberry Tizzy.

This is a sour, but its more of the funky/tangy variety rather than the sour/tart normal sour beer. This is not a knock on the beer or a bad thing, just pointing out the differences. Funky/Tangy does not equate to bad, nor does sour/tart, just different. And I think with the fruit involved here (Nectarines) that it works perfectly. This is a wonderful drinking beer that I can see the 13$ cost being worth for a bottle of it. Thats not something you can say for every beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 7.26.19)

Naked Elf, 2019, definitely a Difficult Art

You know what Naked Elf and Fascism have in common? No matter what you try and do about either one, it keeps coming back, every year.

Ha! Nice transition right? I think I learned that in one of my “essays writing” classes I took, or … maybe I just got drunk and dreamed it. Either way, thats my transition and I’m keeping with it.

So what we got here is the naked version of Mad Elf. An even crazier version of a crazy Elf? Sort of.

I am not going to really do a full review on this. (Sorry to disappoint). But this is one of my favorites from Troegs, and since I picked up a 4pk (like I do every year, at minimum), I will do a full indepth review on just Naked Elf, straight from the can, into my glass. But I will give you the Untappd notes on the 2019 version of this, as well as the original version(s), and will give my ratings, and that will be all she wrote for this blog update.

Naked Elf (2019)
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 17
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 7.26.19) (out of 45 ratings)

Naked Elf
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 17
Untappd Write-Up: Gone are the cherries, honey and chocolate malt that dress up our holiday favorite Mad Elf, leaving “him” stark-raving nude to reveal notes of cinnamon, allspice, clove and tangy fruity esters.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 7.26.19) (out of 11,119 ratings)

Find it kind of interesting how both Untappd versions have the same global rating, despite one being out of 45 reviews/ratings and the other being out of 11,119 ratings/reviews. Isn’t statistics fun?

Ok, and to complete the Tweetceptions, here’s the re-tweet of the re-tweet by Troegs of my Tweet: https://twitter.com/TroegsBeer/status/1154847303255109635

And here’s my Tweet of this blog’s article post, just to make everything like the Ouroboros and make it an ad infinitum loop: https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/status/1154967001384783873

You are all now stuck in the loop, or the Matrix, or whatever. Enjoy!

-B. Kline

Multiple Beer Review – Brewery Flight (Troegs) – Beers – Scratch #379 – Krausened Keller Pilsner, Scratch #378 – DIPA, Scratch #377 – Oat IPA, and Scratch #376 – Passionfruit & Guava Tart Ale

BKline — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 15:30:20 +0000

A flight of the latest scratch beers at Troegs. Scratches 379, 378, 376, and 377 (in order of left to right).

So this is going to be a bit different than my normal beer reviews, because this is a “mutli-beer review” (four for the price of 1!). Since I’m doing them only as tasters rather than as full drafts, I figure instead of doing a separate beer review for each would be a bit superfluous and decided to do it as one conglomerate post. Plus this also lets me go a bit into the detail of beer flights at breweries and how they are different at different places, and even how Troegs themselves recently changed their beer flights.

Firstly, lets go into beer flights at breweries (and some bars do them as well) in general. Typically a flight is either one you create yourself or made up by the brewery of anywhere from 3-5 (though some do much larger ones of six or even ten – Spring House and Hop River Bend do very big flights), and they are typically pours of 4oz or 5oz depending on flight size, cost, etc. Some breweries do a “choose” your own flight, where you pick X number from their tap, and some do a “here’s our flight”. Likewise some do a general price for their flight and some do a “by beer” flight cost (ie. if you pick more stouts, your flight will likely be more expensive than if you picked four hefes).

Troegs Brewery (Hershey Pennsylvania, just down the road from HersheyPark) offers two choices – a pre-set “regular” flight and a “build your own”. The pre-set “regulars” is their mainstays, Perpetual, Troegenator, When in Doubt, HopBack Amber Ale, and their current Hop Cycle beer (this time of year that is now Field Study). And this varies throughout the season with the stout being added in and with some other changes here and there.

As for Troegs ‘build your flight’, this has changed. And twice very recently. So for seemingly forever (up until about 2-3 months ago) it was 3 beers of your choice on their draft menu (no bottled beers, so none of their foeder release beers like Blackberry Tizzy, Farmette, Freaky Peach, etc.) and it came in 5oz pours in their sample glasses. 6$ for the flight. This could include everything from their mainstays (like Perpetual, Troegenator, etc.) to their scratch system (they typically release a new scratch beer as a one-off each Thursday). I liked to make a stop out at to Troegs about every two-three weeks and do a flight of their scratches that I haven’t had yet, and any new releases they have done (like when Lollihop, Field Study, Golden Thing, etc get released), and for 6$ (+2$ tip minimum) you couldn’t beat that. Was great for a little noon-lunch-time stop while kiddos were in school or while running errands.

About two months ago they changed it to now make it a flight of 4 beers, same policy (pre-set or build your own) but the cost now being 8$ rather than the 6$ (understandable increase). 2$ a pour is pretty standard for most flights, and very reasonable when you have a full list of choices of various styles and with their scratch system and their mainstays there is definitely a lot of choices there.

So when I came in this time after a morning full of errands (DMV, car garage, Giant, and the Hershey Library) I did my usual and got a flight of the four latest scratches (all of which were new to me). The board still stated the new policy of “Chose Your Flight – Our Regulars or Build Your Own Flight, 8$”. So I built my own, and did my typical, and got the four scratches listed herein.

Well, their policy has once more changed, to what many other breweries do, which is “unlimited flight” but its price-adjusted. 2$ for the standard, plus a slight cent increase depending on style. So instead of the 8$ for my flight, it came out to be 11.25$ for the four. Which broke down to 2.75$ x3 and the last beer being 3$. Not terribly bad at all and nothing to be alarmed about (just something to be aware of, especially since there was no price listings, in case you are heading to Troegs soon). (Hopefully with the change to their flight policy they will start listing the prices per oz style pourings so people can be aware of this ahead of pay-out). Still 11.25$ isn’t bad for four brand new beers, so I was ready to dive in.

The scratch system at Troegs can be hit or miss. Its their small barrel system that they use to experiment on and try out new styles, techniques, whirlpooling, hop cycling, etc, to try and get new ideas, and and just in general advance their knowledge of brewing. Its been through this that we’ve gotten beers like Nimble Giant, Blizzard of Hops, Lollihop, and Golden Thing (as well as many many many over the past years, like Naked Elf, etc.). Nimble Giant itself was many various scratch beers that they honed in and dialed in til they got it to just how they wanted it, and then released as the big bad summer monster itself Nimble Giant.

So as you can see the scratch system has been a big boon for Troegs and especially with their larger facility in Hershey and with time and years of practice they have gotten some great results out of it. And its also a great way for people in the area to consistently try new beers from Troegs despite Troegs being everywhere in the market.

So starting off with this picture and working my way left to right like a book, I have Scratch #379, Scratch #378, Scratch #376, and finally Scratch #377. I will break each of these down and do a bit of a mini-beer review for each.

(The styles above in order are – Pilsner, DIPA, Gose, DIPA.)

Scratch #379 – Krausened Keller Pilsner

Beer Style: Pilsner – German (Open)

ABV: 4.9%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: The delicate profile of a good pilsner leaves nowhere to hide. For Scratch #379, hot-steep tests with four grains pointed us to a pilsen malt that struck the right balance between earthy straw notes and a clean finish. One pound per barrel of Saaz, the quintessential Noble Hop, adds a delicate herbal layer. Finally, we krausened this beer, adding wort and fresh yeast as it finished up fermentation to create a soft, bready mouthfeel. When every ingredient comes through just-so, it’s pilsner perfection.
We taste: flowering herbs, fruity esters, earthy straw.

I will be honest with this, Pilsner is typically not my style. I’ll drink them and can enjoy and appreciate them, but rarely do I reach for them. In that vein, if I’m having something I’ll grab a good well produced lager (the 717 Lager this year was very good) rather than a Pilsner.

Troegs has been experimenting a bit heavily with these Krausened style beers. I believe this is their third rendition of it on their scratch system and it seems like their dialing it in and trying to perfect it for a possible full-fledged beer.

Luckily I got the ‘worst’ of the flight out of the way first. And by ‘worst’ I don’t mean its a horrible beer, just out of these four, it comes in last. Its not a horrible beer by any means, but it is completely non-interesting and frankly boring. Its light, watery, and dull, without much flavor. Maybe not bad as a palate cleanser between beers, or maybe pilsner fans will enjoy the flavor more, but for me it didn’t have the crisp and the pop of a pilsner or lager and it tasted very light and without flavor. Typically there is an earthy, sometimes bready, flavor to most pilsners or lagers, and this is definitely lacking in both of those flavors.

My Untappd rating: ***
Global Untappd Rating: 3.86 (as of 6.13.19)

Scratch #378 – DIPA (Peach and Apricot)

Beer Style: Double Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None listed
Hops: Lotus, El Dorado, Azacca
Untappd Write-Up: We’re hot on the heels of a new Double IPA. An oat-dominated malt bill gives this beer a super-soft mouthfeel, and it’s loaded with 25 pounds per barrel of fuzzy peaches and apricots. A hop combo of Lotus, El Dorado and Azacca complements the stone fruit with notes of orange rind and pear, and a fruit-forward yeast pulls in flavors reminiscent of gummy peach rings.
We taste: juicy peach, orange rind, brown sugar

This is a wonderfully delicious brew. This is very fruity, very in your face juicy, and just wonderfully delicious. The ABV is completely hidden (a noticeable trend in Troegs DIPAs) and there is no boozyness, no hop bitterness, nothing but clean hazy juice IPA. Probably could be considered a NEIPA but Troegs doesn’t like to label their beers that way.

The appearance is a beautiful orange golden hue and the smell is phenomenal. Straight peach with the hint of apricot and slight hoppy smell backbone to it. The mouthfeel is soft and wonderful and this is just a delightful beer all around.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75/****
Global Untappd rating: 3.83 (as of 6.13.19)

Scratch 376 – Passionfruit & Guava Tart Ale

Beer Style: Sour – Gose
ABV: 5.35
IBU: None
Untappd Write-up: This week’s small-batch Scratch release was born at the crossroads of a few styles and ingredients we’ve been diving into lately. Hornindal Kviek yeast (you might remember it from our recent Brut IPAs) ferments hot and lays down a base of dank pineapple and fruity esters. On top of that, we took a page from our Tart & Fruit Series and loaded this beer up with fruit – in this case passionfruit and guava.
We taste: a tart cross between strawberries and pears, pineapple, passionfruit

A nice change of pace from the last DIPA and the pilsner before it, though just as fruity and tasty at the juicy DIPA. Despite the description I didn’t really get any strawberry or pineapple flavors but the passionfruit definitely came through big time with the guava added a nice effect to it.

The kveik yeast gives it the tart flavor, a good puckering and adds some distinguishable notes for those who have had kveik yeast before that makes it pretty easily apparent.

This has a beautiful coloring just like the peach/apricot DIPA, a nice golden straw with the hazyness and juicy look that the fruits give off. The aroma is also a a powerful fruity punch of passionfruit and a host of other floral fruity smells (notably pear and guava).

A nice lingering aftertaste that lets the fruit flavors cling to your tongue.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 6.13.19)

Scratch 377 – Oat IPA
Last but not least, we get to the Scratch 377 Oat IPA, which they’ve done some cans of but I’m just getting the small taster. This is a juicy DIPA that some could peg down as a NEIPA though Troegs is pretty adamant about not using that naming style.

Beer Style: IPA – Imperial Double
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: None Listed
Hops: El Dorado, Citra, Mosaic
Untappd Write-Up:
With a malt bill dominated by oats and unmalted wheat, Scratch #377 has a soft, rich mouthfeel, laying a canvas that lets the hops shine. A combination of El Dorado, Citra and Mosaic gives us resiny mango, grapefruit and passionfruit notes, and a new-to-us yeast adds juicy notes of peach.

We taste: passionfruit, stone fruit, peach, pine

This is definitely the best of the four pack sampling I did. This is a bright, powerful, juicy, gorgeous looking beer. With a first sip you are instantly enjoying and falling in love with it and wanting much more of it. I can see why they decided to can this, and they have done several other versions of this in their scratch series, so here’s hoping they decide to turn this into a staple beer.

The coloring is a wonderful hazy juicy golden straw beer. Very reminiscent of Tree House or other hazy creations from up north. The aroma is likewise a wonderful blend of hop smells with a bit of pine notes and very heavy mango.

First sip you can get the juicyness of the hops with no true hop bitterness, a burst of mango and passionfruit notes with the right balancing of the malt to give it a very heavy mouthfeel that just feels right.

This is definitely one of their better offerings in quite some time, and a wonderful beer all around. They’ve gone through a couple iterations of these Oat IPAs and most have been hazy. Similar to their krausened ones that they’ve been doing, they’ve been pumping out a new Oat IPA seemingly once per 3 weeks or so on their scratch system, and most have been very good, but this is probably their best version so far.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 6.13.19)

If you can ever get into the Hershey area, I highly recommend stopping in at Troegs, its a lovely facility, both inside and out. (I sat out in their new-ish beer garden area to relax in peace to drink mine while reading). They have a wonderful kitchen (both upstairs and downstairs) and a top-notch brewery tour. Definitely a must stop if you are in the Hershey area.

Until next time everyone, cheers!

-B. Kline

Scratch - The Beer Thrillers

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