Here at Tröegs, we started working with local ingredients back in 2002. And now, nearly 20 years later, we’re using more than we ever imagined possible.
Every year, we brew with more than 200,000 pounds of Pennsylvania grain. Our holiday favorite Mad Elf is sweetened with 25,000 pounds of local honey.
And every fall, when pumpkin beer season arrives, we brew Master of Pumpkins with 3,000 pounds of Pennsylvania longnecks grown 10 miles from the brewery.
It takes a long time to plant, raise, pick, slice, clean and roast all those longnecks, but if you ask us, Master of Pumpkins is worth the wait.
“To us, a pumpkin beer should have pumpkin,” says brewmaster John Trogner. “We’re a Pennsylvania brewery, and pumpkins grow really well here, so using Pennsylvania pumpkins just makes sense. Our fans definitely appreciate the connection to local agriculture.”
Early in the year, when the frost permits, our friends at Strites’ Orchard outside Hershey plant a whole field of Pennsylvania longneck pumpkins just for us. Longnecks are a hearty heirloom variety that taste similar to butternut squash and can weigh up to 20 pounds each.
Then, in late August or early September, we get a delivery of ripe pumpkins, and our kitchen team swings into action, de-stemming and roasting each one of these crooked beauties right in our Snack Bar kitchen.
Finally, we purée every last gourd and the whole lot goes right in our mash tun!
Our spice mix pulls through nutmeg and cinnamon notes with some subtle vanilla, all over a backbone of caramel malt. A Belgian yeast amplifies the dried spice notes.
Look for Master of Pumpkins in 16-oz. cans and on draft at the brewery and in Central PA starting Mon/Oct. 3 followed by everywhere our beer is sold over the next few weeks.
