I promise you, no typo in the post title above.

In anticipating my visit to Troegs Independent Brewing earlier this week, I was looking forward to checking out their Christmas seasonal, Mad Elf Ale. I was happy to see that the Troegs taproom not only had this year’s version of Mad Elf on tap, but the 2017 AND 2016 editions, as well! 3 types of Mad Elf, and 3-beer flights offered by Troegs? Easy choice!

Mad Elf pours a pretty Ruby Red color and is a massive beer, clocking in at a whopping 11% ABV and 15 IBU. Despite that high ABV, the beer is not super-boozy. Or at least, the booziness blends well into the fruit profile of the cherries and the overall sweetness coming from the honey, two of the key brewing additions in this beer. Some mild chocolate notes are also present coming from the chocolate malts.

On to the varietals. To be frank, I could tell very little difference between the 2018 and 2017 editions. The 2016 Mad Elf showed definite changes, starting with a slight lightening of that ruby red color compared to the other two. Overall, the beer was a little smoother with a little more coming from the sweet honey and fruity cherry ingredients.

In addition to the Mad Elves, Troegs also had a variation called Naked Elf. Far lower ABV (6.9%), similar IBU (17) compared to Mad Elf, this is a stripped-down beer, where the cherries, honey and chocolate malts are never added. The result is a fairly straight-up Belgian dark style ale. Several wintery spices are present—cinnamon, cloves, and others—along with a hint of bubblegum sweetness. It’s a neat little beer, but the Mad’s additional brewing ingredients, especially the cherries, really help kick Mad Elf up a notch. Fun little experiment, but I like my Belgians in fairly small doses, so I don’t feel the need to check this out again once my crowler runs dry.

We’re not done with Mad Elf, either! Coming up later this week: Mad Elf Grand Cru.

I am in Pennsylvania for the holiday, and already got started on the local beer scene. I’ll be writing about some of the newbies soon, but started off with an old standard.

I got fresh off the plane in Harrisburg, PA, picked up by my parents, grabbed some lunch, and then headed to Hershey for our third ever trip to Troegs. This marked our first time going on their well-regarded brewery tour. It opened with a pre-tour choice of beers, roughly 10 ounces of their core Amber Ale, seasonal IPA, or small-batch Cranberry Porter. This was followed by a perusal of their art gallery, featuring winners and notable entrants from their annual art contest. Starting at the bottom of the hour, the tour began in earnest. Our tour was led by a lovely young woman whose name I forget, because I am a lousy person. She had a Zooey Deschanel thing going on, if that helps.

The tour covered the four principal ingredients of beer (water, malt, hops, yeast) and the brewing process in-depth, with a walk-through of the production floor. Highlights included tasting malted barley at various stages of roast, smelling fresh and pelleted hops, and sampling “green”/unhopped beer. The tour concludes with further sampling, including our being able to sample their Perpetual IPA fresh off the bottling line. We closed out with a taste of their excellent Jovial Dubbel Ale. Troegs puts together a high-quality tour with some unique experiences. Even if one doesn’t want to do a guided tour (which costs $10—quite a bargain—and takes about an hour), the self-guided tour allows you see some of the processing equipment and contains a ton of information itself, written on glass windows and walls along the couple hundred square-foot tour. Even more of the process equipment, including the boil kettle and hopping tanks, are visible from the main taproom, easily the cornerstone of the brewery overall.

The taproom bar presents upwards of two-dozen beers from their core, seasonal, and small batch line-ups, with all but a few rarer offerings available on tap and able to be carried out in growlers or crowlers (in addition to an extensive group of single bottles, six- and twelve-packs available in their main store. With such a long line-up at the bar, it’s easy to find something you’ll like, but among their notables are the previously-mentioned Jovial along with the current seasonals, Blizzard of Hops, a Winter IPA, and Mad Elf (more on this one at a later date). Among the year-round group, the Perpetual IPA, HopBack Amber, and JavaHead Stout stand out.

Beer in Reviews: Mad Elf Back-to-Back-to-Back AND Naked!

BrewVue: Troegs Independent Brewery