Access/Parking: A short drive from Harrisburg, PA in the outskirts of Hershey, PA. Easily found right off of a highway in it's own very large building. Plenty of parking available.
Space: Very, very large interior space. Open layout, high ceilings, modern styling yet with a warehouse feel.
Beer: Beer Advocate rating as of 6/18/13 = 95Up to this point, I've primarily written about breweries that I had never been to before, but now comes a personal favorite (and hell, I've only been here once before). Troegs Brewing Co, located in Hershey, PA about 30 minutes from Harrisburg, PA, is now housed in a new 90,000 sq. ft. complex which opened in November 2011. Just down the road from Hershey Park, I'm sure this is a destination for the adults after the kids have had their fun at the park. Easy to find, fun to first behold based on it's size (well, and I get giddy some times), and with plenty of parking.
The large building, primarily comprised of concrete and steel is certainly hard to miss. There is a large outdoor patio area with plenty of seating that I'm sure is taken advantage of in the summer. When first walking in you come into the high ceilinged main foray, which has a staircase to the offices upstairs, and it is also the entrance to the HUGE merchandise store. I recommend going first to the bar in the main room, getting a beer (Nugget Nectar if available), and then returning to walk around the store...otherwise you'll get thirsty. Honestly though, it's likely the largest brewery store I've been in. But, if you didn't enter the main room to buy a beer first, we'll walk through those doors now...
"It's huge" will be your first thought. I mean, really huge. Warehouse high ceilings with exposed framing, duct work, piping, and sheet metal above you. Massive cinder block and sheet rock walls painted in greys and sea greens (color to be determined by a normal person). A concrete floor that looks like it took weeks to pour. Four large brew kettles, accessed by a catwalk style platform, sit above and behind a long 22 seat bar with two sets of a dozen taps below (although most are just repeated as they commonly only have between 8 and 12 beers available). Another smaller brewing station with barrel style fermenter is in the back right corner. Large Troegs inspired artwork hangs on a couple of the walls. Everything is extremely well lit, bright even. A ridiculously large ceiling fan spins over head. I mean, this place is impressively big. There are 4 long high top tables, seating 38, running in parallel with the bar. There is plenty of room for a band...but the acoustics would make things really echo, so I doubt they host bands indoors (perhaps on the patio instead). There are 6 speakers hanging from the ceiling, but due to crowd noise, and brewing noise, the music can be rather hard to hear.
On the other side of the long high top tables immediately to your left is a restaurant section under a lower ceiling but with plenty of modern character to match the simplistic design of the warehouse main space. There are roughly 60 seats in this area, primarily booth style, and each table is lit with great little drop down lights from the ceiling. The food is all "window style"; small plates, sandwiches, apps, and salads available. Only beer is poured at the bar; wine and liquor aren't available.
There is a great self guided tour in the back right corner of the main room. Possibly my favorite tour around. It's merely a divided hallway along some of the equipment, and ended at the bottling line. Microbiology, Open Fermentation, Closed Fermentation, Filtration, Kegging, Bottling, and Aging, are all categories with panes of glass at each "station" explaining the process. VERY neat and extremely well done. In here you'll find the best artwork in the whole place (all Troegs related). Also, there is nice room at the end with neat barrel tables, which I found out where they host special tours, tastings, and also can be rented out for events.
Overall, you MUST visit Troegs. Great beer, and a great space will make for a great time. I can say however that as the initial after work and dinner crowd disperse, the size and scope of the building is almost too large for the 15-30 people possibly left over. It is certainly a very different brewery space than that of any other I've visited, but that in and of itself makes it special to me. I recommend a visit here whole heartedly.
(Pictures to come soon)
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