Successful Pennsylvania Beer Tour - Part 3

This is the last post about our recent beer tour in Pennsylvania. Our first post showcased a beer bar in Lancaster and a nanobrewery in Manheim. Our second post explored two microbreweries in Mount Joy. In this post we visit Troeg's Brewery in Hershey.

What made Troeg's different from our other stops is that it is a full production brewery. Guests can register for a full guided tour or they can take a short self-guided tour that describes the brewing process. The tasting room was large - like college gym large. There were several long communal tables along with some regular tables off to the side walls. There's an outdoor beer patio and a snack bar serving upscale counter-service food.

 

We hit the brewery between the lunch and happy hour times and noticed the bar fluctuated between calm and slammed. There were plenty of bartenders on hand so the beer flowed quickly. They were also very good at helping guests select the right beers. We started off with samplers of everything on the left of the menuboard, plus the pils, triple, and an unlisted porter.

All the beers were good and very true to their styles. Of course Holly and Dave preferred the dark beers and ordered up pints of the stout and porter. For food, we tried the beer cheese fondue, pretzel, and the day's special popcorn: BBQ spices and browned butter. The pretzel and popcorn were good, but we were not the biggest fans of the fondue - a little oily and congealed - hard to eat.

 

 

 

Troeg's had a very nice gift shop - a little too nice. We spent a few dollars here on t-shirts, bottle openers, and a tap handle (which we collect). The company recently built this facility with the tourist in-mind (next to Hershey Park) . With that said we would not describe it as touristy. The tasting room still had a local vibe. We would definitely visit Troeg's again.