On The Verge of Tears

As always, my home brew club’s all day party/brewery tour started in South Jersey and at an awful time in the morning.

It barely matters how long the journey will last, it’s divided in to three distinct parts, at least for me: This is part I – THE JOURNEY THERE…

…Part II – THE FEATURED DESTINATION. We arrived at Troegs Brewery early, and slightly buzzed from the “tasting” on the way. The staff had not yet arrived when we gathered aimlessly in the parking lot. The new pub/brewery destination lives in a shell once owned by the Hershey Corporation, whose history in this area have literally put the address of the new Togs location in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Once we got in and started the tour, we got the “special” tour. Normally, regular folks get the run-of-the-mill, scripted plaque, this is kind of how we make beer tour. Not us! This is in their grain storage room, which is pretty boring to 99% of people, but for us nerds, this is where the action starts.

fermentation tanks, also behind the scenes, because, there’s nothing to see, except it’s like every home brewers dream to have this setup.

a view of our group.

this is a shot of Monika, taking a picture of their fancy prototype Randalizer/Hop Rocket. I would like here to an explanation of what that means, but none exists, so I guess that is my next Wikipedia project.

damn straight a craft beer brewery still uses the real thing.

well, before they transfer it to the practical things

Mad Elf a little hard to come by? Not here. They might have told everyone it was sold out, but I call Bullshit. They’re holding out.

Perennial favorite Nugget Nektar, a lovely little beer.

a good ol’ bottling line, make me reminisce about Strange Brew!

their aging and sampling room, which we did not get access to, but I hope to return to someday to sample some of their experimental creations.