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 Tröegs.
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. Tröegs lovers 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 the whole lot before handing them off to our brewers.
The brewers puree the pumpkins and add it right to the 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.
A limited batch of Master of Pumpkins in 16-oz. cans and on draft is releasing at Tröegs on Mon/Sept. 27. It will be available wherever Tröegs is sold over the next couple of weeks.
Ask for it at your favorite bar or bottleshop, grab yours here at Tröegs, or search for it near you at troegs.com/brewfinder.
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