Welcome to our “Meet The Brewer” series! Where we interview brewers in Pennsylvania, from breweries small to large. Let us know if you know anyone who should be featured, email us at [email protected].

Troegs Independent Brewing was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and John Trogner. The brewery is well known for its award-winning beers and for working with as many local ingredients as possible. The brewery recently released double Nugget Nectar, with the release gaining more popularity than the brewery expected! John Trogner is a co-owner/head brewer at Troegs Independent Brewing. Read more to find out his introduction to beer, important lessons he has learned so far, and more!

What was your introduction to craft beer?

Back in the early ’90s, I was fresh out of college and working in a high-rise in Center City Philadelphia. On the first floor was the original Dock Street Brewery. I’d go down after work and have these really interesting beers. I didn’t know what they were, but I knew I liked them. There were others, too – Pete’s Wicked, Sierra Celebration, Brooklyn Brown. At the same time, my brother Chris was out in Boulder, Colorado, and the beer scene was really taking off out there.

How did you get started as a brewer?

Chris eventually convinced me to join him in Colorado. We knew we wanted to start a business together, but we didn’t know what it was going to be yet. We were starting to lean toward a brewpub. Within a week of making the move, I landed a job at the Oasis Brewpub by literally walking in and asking how I could help. It was a trial-by-fire situation. I started by cleaning out tanks and soaking in everything I could, and because I showed up sober and on time, I was eventually promoted to brewer. At the time, the owner wasn’t paying much attention to the day-to-day operations and didn’t really care what we were brewing, so we just winged it and learned as we went.

What style allows you to be the most creative, and why?

Thinking back to the early days, we did a couple of traditional styles for our first few beers. Then we asked ourselves, “How do we explore ingredients and the ways they go together to create interesting flavors and aromas?” That started to lead us in new directions. That’s how we came up with a beer like Nugget Nectar. One of our very first beers was an ESB. Then we wanted to pull in more aroma, so we worked up a new piece of equipment and brewed HopBack. Then we pushed that even further, and because HopBack was an amber, we called Nugget Nectar – this amped-up version of HopBack – an imperial amber. It was a first of its kind.

That’s when we really started having fun when we were no longer bound by styles. We still honor tradition and use classic techniques, and we’re obsessed with precision, but we’re still very much pushing in new directions.

What was the first beer you ever brewed, and what did you learn from it?

Fletcher’s Better Bitter. Fletch was Chris’s dog out in Colorado. A Vizsla. We had a real hodge-podge system. It was an ESB, actually, and used what is now our house yeast.

In a way, it’s an ancestor of Nugget Nectar. At that point, we weren’t searching for recipes. We were just learning how to brew. But obviously, we loved that flavor combination of hops and a deep malt backbone.

Where do you see the craft beer industry heading in the next few years?

There seems to be a movement within craft beer that is focused on entertainment. A business might be built around music or art or food or whatever the owner’s passion might be. And beer comes after that. Those can be really interesting. But I’m hoping there will always be a place for breweries that pursue the art and science of brewing.

Describe what it’s like to be a brewer in Pennsylvania.

Chris and I are PA natives, so being here is a big part of our identity. Back in those earliest days, we kicked around the idea of starting our business out in Colorado. Ultimately, we decided we wanted to be where our roots are. It means so much to us on so many different levels – from the access to great agriculture to the conservation work we’ve done with The Nature Conservancy, to the relationships we have with our longtime wholesale partners and fellow PA brewers, to collaborations like our locally made beer cheeses … the list goes on. Those roots have stretched deeper and deeper. And when we share those stories, our fans have a stronger connection to Tröegs. It paints a bigger picture and gives them a sense of pride.

What is the inspiration behind your beer names?

Naming beers is tough. We try not to have any hard-and-fast rules, but we do have a few criteria we keep in mind. We shoot for one to two words, something that’s fun to say, and gives a cue to how the beer will taste. And of course, it can’t be already taken. Spoiler alert – the first 50 names you come up with will be taken!

What is your favorite beer to drink right now?

Troegenator. In 2020, we set out to start using local grain in Troegenator. And I’m proud to say it’s now brewed with two-row barley grown and malted right here in Pennsylvania. When people think of local ingredients, they often think of hops. But the quality and quantity of the grain in PA really lends itself to brewing. It’s a huge economic opportunity for farmers and a way for us to deepen our PA roots.

What is the most important lesson you learned in the beer industry so far?

There has to be a bond, a trust, between us and our customers. If you think about it, Pennsylvania has been pretty protectionist when it comes to beer. For a long time, you could only buy beer by the case. You couldn’t buy a 6-pack or a single. And if you buy 24 bottles of bad beer, you’re burned and you don’t forget that. So if someone is willing to buy a case of your beer, you’ve earned their trust. Those people out there who always keep a case of Perpetual in their fridge, we never want to let them down. That’s why we’re so focused on quality, flavor, and stability.

Thank you to John for talking with us! Make sure you visit Troegs Independent Brewing for all the latest beers, news, information, and special events. And also follow Troegs on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!