Crank it Up

Another one of the many yearly but seasonal beers of Troegs that is highly anticipated is Double Blizzard, and it just released today. Blizzard of Hops was released a few weeks ago, and now its time for the smaller, more limited run of Double Blizzard to be hitting the tap room and cans and distributors.

Double Blizzard is a much anticipated beer each year. Blizzard of Hops is a perennial favorite, but Double Blizzard is kicking that up another notch. Its not quite the exclusive event that Double Nugget Nectar was, nor does it have the hype train running full steam behind it like Double Nugget Nectar did, but its still a well beloved beer that everyone keeps track of each year.

While at work today my co-worker mentioned its release and how he was stopping at the brewery to pick up some to go. I planned to stop at the Giant on 39 to grab mine. But after his mentioning it, I decided to stop at the source and get some as well. (So needless to say, I also went to Troegs, had it on draft, and picked up a four pack there, as well as later picked up a four pack at the Giant on 39).

Blizzard vs. Double Blizzard

For comparison’s sake, lets take a quick look at the two brews. What does Blizzard of Hops look like – versus – what Double Blizzard looks like.

Blizzard of Hops Stats:

Beer: Blizzard of Hops
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: 80
Untappd Description: We created this Winter IPA to toast hop growers around the world for another successful harvest. This storm of hoppy citrus and pine notes is a bright reminder the end of the Hop Cycle is only the beginning. #4 of 4 in our Hop Cycle seasonal series.
Global Average Rating: 3.77 (as of 12.6.21)

Double Blizzard Stats:

Beer: Double Blizzard
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description:

This is Blizzard of Hops … turned up to 11. For Double Blizzard, we used a cooler temperature for the kettle hop additions, softening the character of the Centennial, Chinook and El Dorado. On the cold side, we dry-hopped with four pounds per barrel of Chinook and Galaxy. At 8.3% ABV, we’re into semi-hazy Double IPA territory, and we like it here.
We taste: huge citrus and pineapple notes, soft pine.
Global Average Rating: 4.01 (as of 12.6.21)

So as you can see, its definitely getting bumped up and juiced up. One is a small little storm dropping a few inches of snow, and the other is a big nor’easter sitting over Central PA dumping a foot or more of snow over two days.

Everything is ramped up, you are going from 6.4% to 8.3%, going from a small time hazy IPA to a big time New England double hazy, and its now dry hopped, which just brings out the flavor profile so much more profoundly than before.

Beer Review

Beer: Double Blizzard
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description:

This is Blizzard of Hops … turned up to 11. For Double Blizzard, we used a cooler temperature for the kettle hop additions, softening the character of the Centennial, Chinook and El Dorado. On the cold side, we dry-hopped with four pounds per barrel of Chinook and Galaxy. At 8.3% ABV, we’re into semi-hazy Double IPA territory, and we like it here.
We taste: huge citrus and pineapple notes, soft pine.

You can tell this is a juicy New England hazy IPA just from the appearance. Not typically a style Troegs Brewing does a whole lot of, or many of; but this is certainly one of them, and they have nailed it. Along with Nimble Giant this is one of my favorite IPAs they release each year. This is a bright, beautiful, orange, lovely looking New England styled IPA. It looks hazy, it has a wonderful frothy and full head, with great retention, and it just has a wonderful overall appearance.

Aroma is a wonderful tropical New England hoppy nose. You get a wonderful citrusy and bright hop aroma from the Chinook and Galaxy that they dry hopped into it. This really makes the aroma pop when you dip your nose into it. The Centennial and El Dorado adds some a nice background hop aroma (and flavor) profile as well, but the heavy lifting for the nose on this is done with the dry hopping.

This is definitely as advertised – Blizzard of Hops cranked up to 11! Its bright, its bold, its strong, its beautiful, its dry hopped, its explosive hop aroma and flavor, its juicy and fresh. It is downright delicious. Like I said, there’s a reason why this is one of the more anticipated releases each year for Troegs Brewing. You get all of the bold flavor of the dry hopping right out the gate and it hits you pretty good and hard. Lots of hop aroma and flavor that just nails it, citrus, pineapple, some tropical notes, a little bit of lime, grapefruit to a small extent, and just a wee bit of earthy / grassy hop flavor as well. This is extremely juicy and tasty, the haziness is not a sediment hazy, but just a good New England IPA hazy. The mouth feel on this is incredible too, it drinks just right, its not watery, not thin, not too heavy or cloying, the haze has no sediment, so your not drinking any particles or anything, your drinking a smooth beer that just looks on the hazy end of the spectrum. There is no off flavors, nothing off putting in this, it is brewed well, methodically, and there is nothing off putting or upsetting with it at all. No bad aroma, no bad flavor, no bad appearance. No horrible aftertaste, no bad post beer burps or anything like that. This is just a great beer for the winter months, even though its not a stout, its still a wonderful wintry beer, filling, full, heavy, with a good ABV to it (8.3%), that leaves you feeling warmer after having drank it. And it pairs so well with a wonderful dinner after a long day at work, that it just makes you wanna cozy up in bed afterwards and fall right to sleep.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Rating: 4.01 (as of 12.6.21)

For more Troegs Independent Craft Brewing beer reviews, news articles, and more, click here:

• Troegs Independent Craft Brewing on The Beer Thrillers

Thank You For Reading

Thank you for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed another one of our beer reviews. We are moving through December pretty quickly it feels. Before you know it, it’ll be the end of December, and that means Christmas and New Years, and with that means all of the “end of the year” reviews and things like that. Also means Christmas time and stuff. Be on the lookout for many great articles coming your way everyone!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

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The Mad Elf Gets a Facelift

As the above picture shows, there’s been a change to our little festive mischievous elf friend over the years. Working from left to right, Tröegs Mad Elf first hit the scene in 2002, and has been the beverage of choice at Christmas (and Thanksgiving) ever since in the greater Central PA area. This marks the second update to the artwork for the Mad Elf, the last time being 2015.

PennLive article originally published in November 2015: Troegs Company Unveils New Label Designs.

Troegs and Art Work

Troegs has a long history of being very interested and engaged in artwork and artists. As is evidenced by the addition of the mural to the outside of their brewery this year. As well as their art gallery inside by the foeders. They’ve done a lot of work with local artists as well as pulling in artists from different neighborhoods and backgrounds over the years, including their work for the Fresh Fest and help with the Harris Brewery and their Imperial Pilsner.

Mad Elf Over the Years

If you go into their brewery (on HersheyPark Drive, Hershey, Pennsylvania), near where you pick up your food, you’ll see a chart giving a bit of a history of the Troegs brewery, and you will see the evolution of the brewery and their progress. On this timeline, you can see the progression and changes to the brewery, from moving to Harrisburg to Hershey, from growing in size, etc. You can see moments like when Mad Elf was mentioned by name in Playboy magazine – which at the time was a very big deal.

Likewise the Mad Elf himself has changed over the years. From a crazy skinny looking drunkard, to a weird, stout, looking drunk elf, almost with cartoon like ‘suds bubbles’ floating above him, like you’d expect to see in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and now, back to an elf reminiscent of the old (original) elf.

For the 19 some years of its production, its interesting to see the progression and growth of the artwork and character, as well as the beer’s production, recipe, and changes. And it has certainly changed over the years. From the can and bottle labels, to the recipe, to the production, and to the size.

The Mad Elf Gets a Festive New Look

It was time for the Mad Elf to get a new, more festive look. …Partly due to how most people did not like the newest iteration of the elf. Many in the local beer community preferred the old Mad Elf design rather than the newest incarnation. So it seemed like it was long overdue for a new change to our beloved little drunk elf friend.

“When it came to reimagining Mad Elf, there was definitely some pressure,” says illustrator Joshua Noom, who also helped us create the new Troegenator. “But working with the Tröegs team again was great. We wanted an Elf that was friendly, fun and welcoming. I like to picture him walking around the brewery, and he knows everybody’s name. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I hope Mad Elf fans love it, too.” Read more at blog.troegs.com. #Troegs #MadElf #PAbeer

Troegs Facebook announcement of the art change.

From the Troeg’s blog, on the Art of Mad Elf:

Mad Elf is here, and this year he has a festive new look.

Mad Elf’s new art – created in collaboration with Florida illustrator Joshua Noom – is the fourth iteration since 2002. The art takes cues from the past while moving him mischievously into the future.

“We have a history of reimagining the Elf,” says Tröegs brother Chris Trogner. “Mad Elf is a beer that really captures the holidays for so many people. And not just beer lovers. A lot of people who don’t regularly drink beer have a special connection with Mad Elf. This new art really captures what people love about it – it’s festive, nostalgic, and a whole lot of fun.”

Troegs Beer Blog – Art of Mad Elf

Mad Elf – The Beer

If you are in the greater Central PA area, or even just in Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or New York, or New Jersey…. or anywhere in the area really…. you already know all about Mad Elf, and its release every year. Probably with the date circled already on your calendar.

The essence of this once-a-year holiday ale, along with its ruby red glow, is born from five varieties of tree-ripened cherries. Bing, Lambert, Van and Royal contribute a bright and juicy sweetness, and Montmorency adds a touch of tartness.

Local wildflower honey sweetens the celebration. Every year, when it’s time to brew Mad Elf, we source 25,000 pounds of honey from a neighbor in Carlisle, PA, called The Happy Beekeeper.

“When you taste honey, you’re getting a slice of nature,” says the beekeeper’s daughter. “And it’s best to get that pure, local source.”

Troegs Beer Blog

Today marks the annual release of Mad Elf in the brewhouse at Troegs Brewery (October 18th, 2021). It will soon be finding its way to bars and other breweries in the next few days (if not today itself), and then on to distributors large and small starting the end of the week. Troegs has a brewfinder on their site to help you find where Mad Elf might be located, you can check that out here: troegs.com/brewfinder.

Beer Thrillers Troegs Links

For other Troegs related links here on our blog, you can check out the following list. After that, will be a list of various other news articles to get more information as well.

• Beer Review: Mad Elf (and other Scratches) (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Naked Elf (and other Scratches) (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Double Nugget Nectar (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Grand Cacao (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Haze Charmer (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Brewing)
• 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
• Beer Review: Scratch 375 – Coco-Nator (Troegs Brewing)
• Mad Elf on the Shelf Fundraiser
• Support Small and Local Businesses
• What Makes a Good Quarantine Brewery?
• Hoppy Easter IPAs
• Breweries From Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19)
• Beer Review: Scratch 417 (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch 400 (Pre Prohibition Beer) (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Fresh Fest (Troegs Brewing)
• Beer Review: Trail Day Pale Ale (Troegs Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Reviews: Fest Lager, Scratch 385 – Krausened Dunkel Lager, and Scratch 386 – Tangerine Passionfruit Guava Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Craft Brewery)

Other Links and More Information

• Billy Penn: Holidays in Philly: Pennsylvania’s crazy popular Mad Elf beer literally started with a boom (December 16th, 2005)
• Penn Live: Troegs Brewing Company unveils new label designs for its beers, merchandise (Published – November 9th, 2015 and updated January 5th, 2019)
• Troegs – Beer Blog – Art of Mad Elf
• Troeg’s Wikipedia

The Beer Thrillers Social Media

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

(Post note: All photos presented here are courtesy of Troegs’ Social Media pages.)

The above is from last night, after a day was had, in which most things – none of the things – played out as intended, by any means, plans, expectations, and happenstance. This is a beer review, and more, and its almost more of a commentary. This is a beer review and talk of how things can be handled, how things could be handled better, and more. This will be an interesting beer review, because I might actually spend more of the review discussing things like hype, market, promoting your brand, etc; than I do on the beer itself. This will not be a rage long into the night or a damnation or a fight. It also won’t be a fan boy esque crushing on a brewery or much more. I think this will be a reasonable review – at least I hope so. But I think it will also be a realistic review.

Hopefully.

Also, before we get into it – kudos to my man Ming with the photobomb.

How to alienate, annoy, anger, and upset your fans and followers in three easy steps….

That should probably be the main title for this. By now, 11AM Friday the 22nd (2021), we all know the story. Anyone whose reading this has access to the internet, and most likely has seen the large amounts of complaints on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. lobbed at Troegs Brewing. From various Facebook groups – like Beer Gods, Beer Nerds, Breweries in PA, Central PA Whalerz, etc, there was much angst, anger, and bitterness at Troegs.

So what went wrong? What led to all of this bitter hostility and anger?

Well, this will probably get long winded. This might also get dogged down into debates and discussion on business practices. I want to be upfront here and say I do not work for Troegs Brewing, I do not receive free stuff from them, and I haven’t received this beer in lieu of review. I normally don’t mention this when doing my reviews, because practically always I buy the beer myself that I review. I say “Hey, I wanna try that beer” and I go and buy it or try it in some fashion and then say “Hey, I wanna review that beer” and I go and write a review of it. Simple as that. I am mentioning this here, because I think its relevant for the discussion that this beer review – blog post – will have. And some of that discussion centers around brand, hype, and marketing. I know some local bloggers Billy Five Caps (Bearcat on Beer), and others might have a very positive spin on things; especially Bearcat as he’s a big time Troegs fanboy (and as his Twitter stated, he was first in line yesterday). (His blog often mentions how he received things from Troegs directly, their Mad Elf cheese, or a beer, etc.)

This will be a tempered discussion. And it will be what I think is realistic, but also my thoughts and opinion. There will be some “so and so said” or grapevine comments, but the main parts and points will be my opinion on what I think was done and why it was done.

So firstly, lets start by breaking this down and starting from the very beginning…

A new dawn is cracked and the day begins

I was at my friend’s house late Wednesday into Thursday. We were doing a stream for his Knights of Nostalgia page. where we played Mega Man V (5). We started the stream around 9:45PM, and ended around 3AM or so, we went pretty late. I then sat around and chatted and bullshitted with him til about 5, got gas, and went home. I woke up at 8, and kind of snoozed / vegged in the bed before fully getting ready and starting my day.

Around 930 AM I was starting to see things pop up on the various Facebook groups that people were already lining up at Troegs. I wasn’t really sure if people were joking around or not. (As it turns out – no, they weren’t joking around.) Struggling to get up from the late night drinking session and streaming, I finally get my shower at 10AM. Get to my car at 1015 and head to Troegs. Living in Hummelstown, its about a five-ten minute drive depending on the traffic on Hershey Park Drive. Coming up on the Troegs Brewery, I can already see the parking lot is completely packed, I can see a car parked on the side of the road, and right before getting into the entrance I have a car cut me off and enter the brewery’s lot.

As I pull into the lot, I can see the line stretches from the door, through the patio garden area, past the parking lot on the walkway sidewalk they have (asphalt) and stretches all the way back to nearly the train tracks. Two guys quickly run through the parking lot and get ahead of me, I get in line, and soon after another three enter the line behind me. The last of those three is the first to be on the grass where the asphalt sidewalk ends.

The time is 10:35.

I stand there reading – “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” by Pierre Bayard. Guys around me in the line are chit chatting. Up ahead I can see a woman with a stroller and a small child (probably around nine years old) playing in the grass.

Already I knew I was in for a long day, and knew my expectations and how I thought this day was gonna play out were not gonna happen. My original plan was to pop into the general store, pick up two four packs (one for me, one for my buddy), and then go into the restaurant, have the hop fries and order a flight with Double Nugget Nectar and regular Nugget Nectar, to be able to do a side-by-side tasting; specifically for this blog.

Welp…. that ain’t gonna happen.

Its 10:50AM do you know where your Double Nugget Nectar is?

At 10:50AM a woman for Troegs starts working her way up the line stopping at spots to make an announcement. She explains the situation. There is 40 cases for online only sales, 80 cases for in-person sales. There is no limits. First come first serve. Starting with the line. There is 10 kegs for in-house. This means behind the bar in the restaurant and in the store for crowlers and growler fills. When its gone its gone. The online sale would start at 11:00 and the line would begin moving and letting people inside at 11:00.

Immediately everyone gets out their phones and look to try and order online. First pick up would only be 1PM though, but people don’t seem to care. At 11 they can start shopping. By 11:01AM the online sales are complete and sold out. Many people, in line – in person, as well as online in the various Facebook groups and Troegs Brewing page, said that their carts would be full but they weren’t able to check out in time due to how quickly it sold out online.

The line begins moving, first steady as the first wave went in, then in spurts as people would leave they would let others in. By about 11:30 I’m up to the arbor – wooden arch – that leads to the pergola and outdoor seating area. About five minutes later I’m off the road and into the little walkway area around the picnic tables. The people in the line are beginning to be pretty disgruntled.

Specifically the guy behind me who says he came from Wilmington Delaware. The guy in front of me says he came from near him and was supposed to be at work. They both said it was a two hour drive. At this point we can now see the people leaving the store with their goodies. One guy walking out with three cases. This was when the real bitching, moaning, and complaining set in with people in the line.

The guy behind me everytime some one exits with a case, “Oh c’mon, save some! I’ll buy a can off of you right now for 10$. You’re not drinking all of that!”

There is now a line to get into the restaurant. Running halfway down the ramp. And its now 11:45 and the announcement comes out, as I’m standing about three feet past (towards Troegs) the food truck: “No more cans! No more cans!” A collective groan goes up over the establishment.

The employee comes out and gives an update: “The cans have sold out. We do have the kegs in both the store and in the restaurant, you can buy crowlers and growlers in the store.”

Note here on pricing: the four packs were 17.99$ for a four pack (4 16oz cans – total oz of 64oz). The crowler fill is 14.50$ (32 oz), and a growler fill was 22$ (64oz).

I finally get to the steps, and soon after get inside. At this point its 12:10. The inside of the store is a zoo. Employees all running overtop of each other. You get your crowlers or growlers paid at the register, and then wait in a line til they have them canned up (or growlers filled) and then you get yours. I order two crowlers, and pick up a six pack of the 12oz Nugget Nectar cans.

The line is too long for the restaurant and with the limited seating, who knows when they’ll let people in.

The line to get the crowlers is about eight people, and we wait til they fill each person’s allotment of cans that they ordered. In the line with me, a woman gets 10, another woman gets 6, the guy in front of me gets 4, and the guy behind me gets 8. I get my two crowlers, and leave. Running into a shift manager for swing shift that I work with, and my one friend in the line. I explain the situation inside to them. And said if I had thought of it, I could have just saved them the time and ordered their crowlers for them and just handed it to them when I came out.

By this point its 12:40PM, and I had been there since 10:30AM. I was hungry, and to be honest, it was just all so hectic, that I felt a bit frazzled. I can only imagine how the poor employees working felt. And most likely they got few and sparing tips since everything was store purchases rather than drinks at the bar.

How My Thursday Unfolded

The original gameplan for Thursday was to meet up with Drew at his place and do another stream at night. He was waiting for a special HDMI cable to come in so he could play GameCube and Wii games for his streaming page. As it turns out, the piece never arrived.

I ate lunch at Rubber Soul in Hummelstown. And what a world of difference that was. No lines. No angry, angst ridden people, no complainers, etc. I even picked up a four pack of their newest beer – Fiddler’s Elbow – a Belgian Dubbel. The four pack was 15$. I had the Italian Wedding Soup that I love there, and the Soul Patch Pilsner.

I then needed some hiking time. So I did a quick Google Search for hikes and places I never been to within an hour drive. And I came up with this one called Reed’s Run Preserve. The original place was Tucquan Glen Nature Preserve, 1 hour and six minutes from Rubber Soul. I picked it because the pictures showed some beautiful waterfalls.

So off I went in search of trying to get some peace and serenity.

House Rock

The big feature of the place was House Rock. I couldn’t get to Tucquan Glen Nature Preserve because all of the parking lots were closed up due to it being winter, so I hiked the Reed Run Preserve and House Rock Preserve. A 3.16 mile hike. Just me all alone in the woods, and with a gorgeous view ontop of House Rock.

Had me my normal hiking beer (Nugget Nectar), had some meditation time on House Rock drinking it and taking in the view. The hike took about 2 hours and was 3.16 miles. Afterwards, I did my normal “whats nearby” search for breweries and found a few I haven’t been to before. Raney Cellars, Pig Iron Brewing, Columbia Kettle Works (in Columbia), Our Town Brewery in Lancaster.

I decided on Raney Cellars which is in Millersville. While there, I got the message from Drew saying we wouldn’t do the stream tonight, and that he was going to do an online poker tournament. So I messaged Ming and told him I was basically in his backyard. Him and Don and their friend Justin were going to play cards, so they invited me out.

So I quickly hit Columbia Kettle Works on my way to their house (it was on the way… sort of…) I had been to the Columbia Kettle Works 2nd Gear location in Lancaster with my friend Rory a few years back when we saw Dropkick Murphy’s there. But this was my first time at both of these locations (Raney Cellars and Columbia Kettle Works in Columbia). Both were great and the beers were great. I’ll be doing a post about them in the upcoming days, so stay tuned for that if you’re interested.

Got to Ming and Don’s around 7:20-7:30PM for dinner (Shepherd’s Pie) and then some games of Rummy. Also cracked open the crowler of Double Nugget Nectar, had the remainder of the six pack of Nugget Nectar, and had the Fiddler’s Elbow I picked up at Rubber Soul. (Even cracked a Miller Lite at the end of the night – 3AMish, when we were out of everything else.)

Ok… so enough of all of the day’s events, lets finally get to that beer review, probably the only real reason you are here anyway!

Beer Review: Double Nugget Nectar – Troegs Brewing

Beer: Double Nugget Nectar
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: Red Ale – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: Let’s take Nugget and double it. Well, it wasn’t quite that easy, but it sure was a fun balancing act. To start, we boosted the Simcoe, and this complex hop’s notes of apricot, peach rings and bright citrus are the star of the show. Azacca enters the picture to add hints of juicy orchard fruit, and Munich malt brings a bready sweetness. To strike a balancing note, Columbus joins Nugget hops, grounding this limited release with a layer of dank pine.

Appearance looks similar to the regular Nugget Nectar. It looks hazier, a bit more cloudy than the original, but also looks lighter in overall color. Still has that same reddish to amber to orange sunset look to it, a harvest moon type coloring. Coming from the crowler and canned only about 8 hours earlier, it still had great carbonation and a nice thin head. Left great lacing on the glass.

Aroma is super hoppy. You can tell this is an amped up Nugget Nectar. Its got the malt aroma, its got the hop aroma, and you can smell a sweetness to it. The hop nose on this is extremely strong and powerful and is the best feature of the beer. It just smells like an amazing beer.

Ok, lets get into the beer itself. First thing’s first: is it worth the hype? ….Yes and No. It is… but to a degree. Nugget Nectar is a universally beloved Troegs offering. So doing a double version of it immediately hypes it in and of itself. This deserves that level of hype. It does NOT deserve the hype of people waiting in line at 9AM to get into a brewery at 11AM. Its not “I better get 3 cases” of it hype. (Outside of the turn around sales.) This is a really well done beer though. Its extremely tasty. And I could easily drink three cases worth…. (not in one night of course!) but overall in months. I would go for this over regular / original Nugget Nectar. That being said, I’ve had many better beers, and many many worse beers. This is a wonderfully tasty beer though. Thankfully, luckily, its not a malt bomb. It is malty, and it is sweet, but not moreso than Nugget Nectar (original) is. In fact, I think Nugget Nectar is sweeter than this. With the hopped up nature of this one, its a bit more bitter, a bit more hoppy than the original. Probably more than a ‘bit’ – a lot more hoppy, but only a bit more bitter. There is some bready taste to it with the malt, as well as peach, citrus, and pine from the hops. It all strikes a nice balance. The 9.5% makes it a bit stronger than the original which was 7.5%. So its on par with a lot of DIPAs (Double IPAs) as far as strength. But the ABV is pretty well hidden, and doesn’t really kick you in the butt, even in a 32oz crowler. I do like this beer and think its an improvement over whats already one of the better Red Ales / Amber Ales in the area. I will be interested to see if they decide to try and make this a regular seasonal in the future, of if they shelve this.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.49 (as of 1.22.21)

(For reference sake – my Nugget Nectar Untappd rating was originally 4.5 when I first had it checked in, so so so so many years ago, and have in the past few years adjusted it to 4 caps.)

My Final Thoughts and Opinions

So, circling this back to the beginning of the post, and my subheading there: “How to annoy, anger and alienate your fans in three easy steps…”

This is what Troegs did in a big way. Will it make an impact in the long run? Probably not. I think a bigger question here is – was it intentional or poor planning? Either answer is not a great look for Troegs. And is kind of a shame really. Troegs is not known for their line life, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever waited in a line, outside of five-ten minutes due to COVID over this past summer just to get in. This isn’t Tree House, or Trillium, or Imprint, or back in the day Tired Hands, where you had to wait to get the new release.

So… did Troegs just not expect the turn out? Or did they do it on purpose?

If they did it on purpose, their “plan succeeded”. It made and built hype for this beer, it makes them look like a hype brewery, and it gets them talked about over and over and over again in online circles. Publicity cheap. Advertisement done by others. As the old saying goes: “Even bad publicity is still publicity.” “Negative attention is still attention.” The over hype on this will create a second market, and the beers will sell higher now. My own co-worker offered me 25$ for the crowler I got and paid for at 14.50$. More than likely, that guy who walked out with the three cases was either there for a lot of friends, or was going to sell online in various FT/ISO and mule groups. Will he upcharge? Who knows; but more than likely.

The comments section on Troegs page is a bit interesting right now. A lot of entitlement, and a lot of anger. People saying Troegs is forgetting the locals, the people who helped build them up to where they are. A lot of people who never lost out on limited release beers before, and it shows to a pretty high degree in the comments section.

So, maybe it was just handled poorly? This is believable. Maybe Troegs didn’t believe their own hype? Maybe they didn’t think it would really sell out the way it did. I don’t know. I do know how it was ran, was pretty poor. They bungled the pre-sale on Monday by posting it up on Sunday despite initially telling everyone it would be Monday. Then they didn’t put limits on the beer. And they tried to mitigate things COVID wise, but in reality, not really. If I had to take a guess at how many people were in the line when I got there at 10:30, I would say 250-300. And once inside, the store would hold 24 people at a time, and people went about touching everything, being close to each other, etc.

The beer completely sold out by 1:30PM. That counts the 10 kegs they had for on-site and growler / crowler fills, as well as the 80 cases for in-person and the 40 cases for online. That means in 2 and a half hours they sold 10 kegs and 120 cases of their beer. Impressive.

Going forward, what would be some solutions? The most obvious is limits. Two to three four pack limit. Does this completely negate everything? No, because people can come in groups, and buy up still, but it does limit that. It also gets the beer in as many hands as possible. Their online sales could have been improved so that carts didn’t get voided because people couldn’t type in their credit card info quick enough.

Will the lesson be learned? It will be interesting to see. Did Troegs do it on purpose? Thats debatable. My gut tells me – yes, they did it on purpose, to create their own hype. But, some friends think they just didn’t realize their own hype. That they were just this woefully unprepared.

I do want to give a big shout out to the workers there though. This had to be an extremely trying and tough day, and I can only imagine how the tap room was once the last keg kicked.

Would I recommend getting it on the secondary market? Depends. Obviously on price point it depends a lot. The four packs went for 17.99$ in person. If your paying more than 25$ for a four pack, I would say its probably not worth it, but that is up to you, so who knows. Your tastes and money mileage varies.

I will be curious about the fall out from this, if Troegs will offer an apology, if they will try and remedy it, if they try and brew this again to sell. Will be interesting. Will have to wait and see.

Either way, lets all be kind to each other, the brewery, the workers, ourselves, etc. Happy New Year. New Year, New You, New Happiness. Yesterday at 9:21PM was a very interesting time. Especially at 9:21:21. It would have been the 21st second, of the 21st minute, of the 21st hour, on the 21st day, of the 21st century. Very cool.

Would love to hear everyone’s experiences with Troegs and the Double Nugget Nectar release in the comments. Let me know. Were you there? What was your experience? Feel like you got lucky? Missed out? Etc. Let us know! I’m very curious to see everyone’s reactions!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

I had originally ran out to Harrisburg because I had to go to the DMV to renew my license, only to find out that I now have to go to Enola to renew my license and they are open Tuesday through Saturday (which… of course… today is a Monday). So I walked my dog along the Green Belt and the Riverfront, taking her over to City Island and back, and then decided I’d hit up ZeroDay Brewing. Well… I forgot they are doing the renovations and reconstruction on the old ZeroDay Brewery on Reily Street, and that their new current location doesn’t open til 4PM; so that was obviously a no – go. So I drove home, dropped off Leela, and met Drew and Andy at Troegs.

Sadly, they did not have a cranberry beer, so I only have a cranberry / lemon or lime or something gose I picked up from Urban Artifact for this year’s Thanksgiving. Typically, Troegs does a cranberry every year for Thanksgiving, usually a porter, sometimes something different, and I try to pick up a 4 pack or 6 pack or a crowler of it for the meal. Also, in recent months, it seems Troegs has also really slowed up on their scratch series. Pre-COVID they were doing a new scratch release every Thursday (or nearly every Thursday; and even sometimes doubling up and releasing two on a Thursday), but it seems now they have really slowed up their scratch series, and are releasing them intermittently.

So there was a bit of a dearth in ‘new’ beers for me to try at Troegs today. I was afraid I’d have to drink more when I got home just to hit my requirement of a new beer today, but, I am being a bit cheeky and calling my Mad Elf and Mad Elf Grand Cru picks as ‘new’ since they are technically the Mad Elf (2020) and Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) vintages. Bit of a loophole… but I’m taking it.

Troegs has slacked a bit on their uptight mandates as well. No longer needing to check into the host and waiting for a text to be seated, and no longer having to “all be together” before seating, I was able to meet up with Drew and Andy who were already seated. Drew ordered a pork waffle thing (no clue), and Andy got fries, I just drank. I had a draft of the Grand Cacao, followed by the Coco-Nator, then the Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) and the Mad Elf (2020). Funny thing – the very first beer review on the blog here was the scratch Coco-Nator released a year and a half ago – Scratch #375 – Coco-Nator. They then released it later last year as a new seasonal – Coco-Nator, and now its been re-released for the first time this year. And now, here I am, also enjoying a Grand Cacao that I will be doing as another review for Troegs on the blog. (And here I was just thinking to myself how it’s been a ‘hot minute’ since I’ve done a Troegs beer review.) Its almost like coming full circle….

The nice thing about doing the thirty blogs in thirty days thing, is that it gives me a chance to do a lot of reviews I might have skipped, and to really hit a lot of local breweries for the reviews. Getting to do a Tattered Flag one (The Pandalorian) as a recent local brewery beer review. You can see all of my November 2020 posts here: November 2020. Its fun to do a mix-up of local brewery reviews to get the name out and to help promote and because its obviously what I’m drinking, as well as doing some bigger name ones that are maybe from further away breweries or just bigger known beers or breweries, like the Yuengling Hershey Porter or Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary, or Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage.

Troegs Independent Brewing has always put out very strong beers, solid, hard to ignore, hard to hate beers. They are also the biggest local craft brewery in the Central PA area. One of the biggest producers in Pennsylvania, and the East Coast alone. They are often talked about, and one of the more well known breweries. So its great having them theoretically “right in our backyard”. When I was coming of age (of drinking…. legally) (at 21), they were the first real craft brewery that I got into (not counting Sam Adams) and was really the first brewery I visited and went to often. I don’t get to them as much as I used to, and there’s a ton more options now in the area, but they are still a solid brewery.

So let’s break down this latest seasonal beer from Troegs Brewing:

Beer: Grand Cacao
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description:

Welcome to Grand Cacao. This deliciously decadent stout is built on a foundation of rich chocolate malt, caramel malt and roasted barley. Cold-steeping on Peruvian cacao nibs and natural vanilla doubles down on the smooth symphony of chocolate, and a splash of milk sugar delivers a velvety sweet and creamy finish.
We taste: milk chocolate, roasty grain, hints of sweet cream

As per usual with a stout, this is dark black, jet fuel black, Razor Ramon hair black. Stephen Hawking black hole black. Black as my….. (oh…. thats too easy….) ….anyway… moving on from the apt description of somebody’s heart and soul that I know….. This is a dark black beer. It had a nice creamy foam head to it, not big, but not small, nice carbonation, and nice lacing on the glass. Good bubbles that were diverse and varied in size.

The aroma is very chocolaty, very cacao, very baker’s chocolate. As me and Drew and Andy were discussing, like with the Yuengling Hershey’s Porter, which is a super sweet chocolate, we kind of (the three of us in consensus) agreed, that we prefer a more bitter baker’s chocolate to a chocolate stout. This smells just like that. This has more of the bitter, earthy, nib, roasted malt, chocolate smell to it.

Taste is surprisingly smooth, but its not the overly sweet Hershey’s syrupy / syrup taste that the above porter has. Despite this being smooth, silky, and creamy, its more of the bitter chocolate notes. The roasted malt and caramel also gives it a very deeper, darker tone and flavor, and brings out more of the bitter and earthy notes, rather than the sweet chocolate. That not to say that this isn’t sweet or creamy or smooth or silky, it is all of those things and more. I think there’s just more complexity to the flavor in that it provides a bitter chocolate taste, while being creamy and smooth and silk and sweet. A nice complexion and degree of difference between the vanilla and the bitter, between the sweet and the bitter, between the cacao nibs and the vanilla and milk sugar. This tastes more like the hot cocoa you get at a football game once the negative 10 degrees sets in fully and turns your hot cocoa into ….well… regular cocoa. Or the milk after a very chocolaty cereal and you ate all the cereal and are now draining the bowl of its chocolatey milk. This is also a pretty crushable drink too. I could easily down a six pack of the 12oz cans of these (thanks Deuane for the can by the way), or if they ever re-release it in four pack at 16oz cans, I could drink a few of them in that size as well. The 6.5% is pretty low (lower than Troegs own Perpetual IPA – their flagship and staple beer and IPA), so its enough to give you a good surprising buzz after a can or two, but not enough to send you hurting for a hangover the next day. (Jokes on my buddies too, telling me I’ll end up with a headache and hangover from the Mad Elf Grand Cru and Mad Elf I had after the Coco-Nator and Grand Cacao…. I don’t get hangovers anymore……..) A low ABV but high flavor stout is always perfect for the fall months and fall weather leading into the more wintry weather and months. This will go great for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties… I mean…. your own personal home get together’s of Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Not sure if this will become a seasonal regular for Troegs or if this was a one-shot done deal, but if it does become a seasonal regular each year, I will certainly be looking forward to it. Make sure you stop out at the brewery for some of this, not sure if the cans are hitting the distributors or stores, but its at the brewery, and its also on draft at the brewery, so make sure you at least get a try of it before it disappears.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 11.23.20)

This turned into a rather longer winded beer review than I intended, but hopefully you stuck around for it, as its now dragged me from 11PM when I started this til just a wee bit after midnight – 12 – so I’m still counting this as upholding my ‘post’ for the day of the 23rd. (Especially since the time stamp and posting of this is based on when the article was started, so I fly by on a technicality there.)

Be sure to check out some of my other Troegs beer reviews:

• Beer Review: Haze Charmer (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #417 – Orange – Lemon Peel IPA (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #400 – Pre – Prohibition Lager (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #394, Scratch #395, Scratch #396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Two Beer Review: Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Fest Lager, Scratch #385 Krausened Dunkel Lager, and Scratch #386 Tangerine – Passionfruit – Guava Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #382 Blackberry Lime Tart Ale, Scratch #383 Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe), Dear Peter, and Naked Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #379 Krausened Keller Pilsner, Scratch #378 DIPA, Scratch #377 Oat IPA, and Scratch #376 Passionfruit and Guava Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #375 Coco-Nator (Troegs Independent Brewing)

For those interested in the Trip to Indianapolis, you can read more through the following articles (some full length articles, some recap articles):

The Trip to Indianapolis – Full Articles:

• Day One: Thousand Steps Trail, Juniata Brewing Company, Ghost Town Trail, Levity Brewing
• Day Two:
• Day Three:
• Day Four:
• Day Five:
• Day Six:
• Day Seven:

The Trip to Indianapolis – Recap Articles:

• The Trip to Indy
• The Trip to Indy – Day One Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Three Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Four Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Five Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Six Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Seven Recap
• Recap and Stats

As always everyone, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the beer review and your time here at The Beer Thrillers. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe, and if you want, comment or ask any questions please feel free to do so. Love hearing from you all.

Also be sure to stay safe this Thanksgiving week, with COVID-19 and everything going on, this is going to be a tough week, and one where everyone needs to do their best to stay safe and healthy.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

In this new reality, breweries have had to adapt fast. Take-out and curbside options are essential for those trying to get their goods into the hands of their local hop heads. So what makes for the peak quarantine beer experience? I can’t answer that as options are somewhat limited by necessity during this time. I can’t tell you if New Glarus is changing the game out in Wisconsin. What I can tell you is that Troeg’s is once again leading the pack in efficiency and experience here in Central PA.

Last week my fiance and I took the time out of our busy schedule (ha) to pay a visit to the brewery in Hershey. Ordering was super easy on their website, where in addition to beer, they also offer several dishes from their snack bar including the make at home pizza kits that we purchased. Be sure to give one of these a whirl as the sourdough crust tastes amazing and is hard to mess up for any pizza tossing neophyte. At any rate an hour after ordering we pulled into the usually crowded Troegs parking lot and saw the ten different stalls they have available. Picking up was simple. Back up into the stall of your choice, pop the trunk, then give them a call and a worker will run out and put the delivery directly in there. We were blown away by the execution. In a world where contact-less delivery has become the new norm, Troegs is diving in headfirst. I’m not sure if Chik Fil A could do it better.

As for the beer itself, I opted for a case of their 2020 Summer Anthology. During a time when the days can be monotonous, a variety pack can keep you sane. I am already familiar with the beers which include the newest Haze Charmer, a dry-hopped hazy pale ale that Troegs refuses to call a New England IPA, as well as older standbys Field Study IPA, Sunshine Pilsner, and their sales juggernaut Perpetual IPA. As the weather turns, these beers are all a perfect pairing for days mowing grass and grilling. Sunshine Pilsner in particular, a beer that I have at least overlooked as a “boring” choice, is much better than I remembered with a crisp and balanced flavor.

Have any of our friends and readers had great experiences with any of the other local or not so local breweries out there during this time? If so feel free to give a shout out in the comments!