Sunshine Pilsner is now produced in part with the help of real sunshine, thanks to a major brewery expansion project at Hershey, Pennsylvania-headquartered Tröegs Independent Brewing that includes a full roof of solar panels.
Tröegs has marked its 25th anniversary with enough solar panels to provide 15% to 20% of its electric needs and a 14,000 sq. ft. expansion that will double the brewery’s canning capacity.
“It’s really just trying to hopefully set us up for the next 20, 25 years to come,” co-founder Chris Trogner told Brewbound. “We have a lot of things that we’re doing here just from an infrastructure standpoint, a brewery standpoint to build our capacity a little bit more efficiently, also a little bit more sustainably.”
Last year, Tröegs acquired its building from its former landlord, a plan that was delayed by the pandemic. With the deal closed, Trogner and his brother and brewery co-founder John Trogner have begun to make several improvements to the facility, including the solar panels and the installation of a new canning line that will double packaging capacity. The solar panels were installed at the end of 2021, and the canning line is expected to come online in October.
To further its sustainability goals, Tröegs will install an Earthly Labs carbon capture system later this year to reclaim carbon dioxide produced during fermentation for other uses. The brewery will also add about 100 spaces to its parking lot for staff and guests.
“That sets the stage for us going forward for a long-term future, which has always been a plan for my brother and I,” Trogner said.
The new canning line can fill more than 400 cans per minute, twice as many as the brewery’s existing line, which is coupled with Tröegs’ bottling line and allows only one package type to run at a time.
“It will give us greater capacity in both packages, both bottles and cans,” Trogner said. “The canning line is also more appropriate for where our growth is today, which is primarily in cans, and will set us up for future growth.”
With the new line, Tröegs will be able to alternate between 12 oz., 16 oz. and 19.2 oz. cans, automate variety pack filling and wrap 6-packs. Tröegs’ packaged volume is about 40% of the brewery’s custom glass bottles, which Trogner called “still a very important package for us.”
“We’ve always been fairly even between the two, but each year cans outperformed bottles,” he added.
Tröegs began offering its biggest volume drivers in 12 oz. can 12-packs even before the pandemic’s closure of bars and restaurants forced other craft brewers to follow suit to capture off-premise sales. The brewery distributes Perpetual IPA, its top seller, Troegenator double bock and Sunshine Pilsner in 12-packs. Other offerings, such as Tröegs’ double IPA series, are available in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans.
Most of the brewery’s six variety packs are offered as 12-packs, except for its Summer Better pack, which contains 15 cans and includes Perpetual IPA; Sunshine Pilsner; Hazy Charmer hazy pale ale; summer seasonal Field Study IPA, which features Pennsylvania-grown grains; and new offering Perpetual Haze IPA. The Summer Better variety pack launched earlier this month.
Perpetual Haze (7.5% ABV) is the latest addition to Tröegs’ “Once A Year” brand family. It combines “the clean, crisp bitterness of a West Coast IPA and the softness of a hazy” and uses “Citra and Cashmere hops to unlock juicy notes of orange, passionfruit and nectarine,” according to a press release. Perpetual Haze will roll out in 16 oz. can 4-packs on May 19.
Later this summer, Tröegs will release Razza Squeeze, a gluten-reduced fruited FMB (4.5% ABV, 125 calories) in its taproom and a limited number of Pennsylvania off-premise stores. Razza Squeeze came out of Tröegs’ R&D brewery – the Scratch Lab – and the company is still putting the finishing touches on it.
“We have to get it all dialed in,” Trogner said. “We’re still kind of in that process right now.”
The company has adapted its chain sales strategy in recent years as chain grocery and convenience stores began selling beer about five years ago, which Trogner said has led to “pretty amazing” growth in off-premise sales in Tröegs’ home state.
“We’ve had to recognize that and we put more resources behind it,” he said. “We’ve developed a small chain team that is specifically dedicated to working with grocery stores and then we also have a larger part of our team, which is working with independents.”
The Keystone state accounts for the bulk of Tröegs’ sales, which are spread across a nine-state footprint that reaches north to Massachusetts, south to Virginia and west to Ohio.
Overall, 2021 “was definitely a very solid year” for the company, and total volume was basically flat to 2020, if “down slightly, like 100 barrels or so,” Trogner said. In 2020, Tröegs’ output increased +7%, to 112,709 barrels, and 2021 volume was “112,000 and change.” The Brewers Association has yet to publish final production numbers for 2021, but Tröegs was the nation’s 24th largest craft brewer by volume last year.
On-premise sales slowed during the fall and winter, but Tröegs received a boost during the summer months.
“As things were starting to open up, last summer was probably a little better than towards the end of the year when it came to on-premise,” Trogner said. “It kind of shifted then paused, and now we hope we’re going back to a shift again.”
As the brewery’s on-premise business continues to reawaken, Trogner noticed accounts are more interested in sixtels than full-size kegs.
“We’re starting to see our smaller kegs growing at a much faster rate,” he said.
Summer brings heightened tourism to Hershey as about 4 million visitors annually visit Hershey Park, which will extend its season this year. The city also draws tourists for concerts at Hershey Stadium and conferences. Many tourists also visit Tröegs’ taproom, which is “still a pretty big part of our business,” Trogner said. Taproom sales have yet to rebound to 2019 levels, but are “not down significantly.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Trogner said. “We’re not back to where we were, but we’re all pointed in the right direction.”