Much of craft brewing is about evolution, and evolving to fit your market. Tröegs Hop Back Amber Ale is an evolved form of one of the companies earlier successes, the Tröegs ESB.
"Tröegs ESB developed an early following among Tröegs fans, but as the brewery expanded ESB sales stalled. As the brewery continued to evolve, changing the ESB recipe and re-branding the beer as HopBack Amber Ale is a pivotal moment in the brewery's history," said Jeff Herb, the media and communications coordinator for Tröegs. Hop Back sales soon soared after its rebranding and recipe alteration.
The Tröegs Brewery was founded in 1996 in Pennsylvania by two brothers, John and Chris Trogner. The name of the brewery sprang from a family nickname, a the Flemish word for pub "Kroeg". Since its start, the brewery has received accolades from brewers and beer critics alike.
The Hop Back Amber Ale is named after a device used to give the beer its deliciously hoppy aroma, and one of the main recipe altering points from the original ESB. A hop back is a vessel that is placed in the midst of the brewing process.
"Essentially, we fill the vessel with whole flower hops and allow the hot wort to flow through the hopback while being transferred from our brewhouse to fermentation," says Herb. This allows the aromatic agents of the hop to be transferred into the final product, without the addition of any extra bitterness.
And the Hop Back is bitter, but in the way you'd hope a hop forward beer would be. Smooth in flavor and color, it's no wonder that it's a staple in the Tröegs line.
The Tröegs Brewery has just acquired multiple pieces of new equipment, including a new bottling line and multiple new fermenters and tanks of enormous size. This new equipment has allowed them to do limited run beers featured in the tasting room of the brewery, which will eventually head to the larger market. They have recently released "a first run of Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator in 750mL bottles, which sold out at the brewery store in about two days." They have also acquired a canning line, adding them to the list of breweries hopping on the canning trend.
The first beers they're offering canned are their Perpetual IPA in 12 ounce cans, and their Troegenator in 16 ounce pounders. Look for them in a store near you.
