When one of our brewers left us a few months ago to go work at the Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg, PA, our Senior VP of Brewery Operations Matt Brophy told him that we’d pay a visit to Troegs to see how he was settling in. So last Friday, a group of about 15 Flying Dog Brewery employees hopped in our company Winnebago (complete with a draft beer system inside) and drove 90 minutes to go see Jeff and the rest of the people at Troegs. Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso was kind enough to be the designated driver for this excursion as plenty of beer sampling was involved.
From Matt Brophy:
We try to get out every few months to visit another brewery, seeing how others do things and feel better about ourselves when we realize that all brewers deal with the same day to day challenges that we do.
So we spent the day at Troegs, tried some great beers and went on a great tour of their impressive facility. The Troegs people are also planning to come to our brewery sometime in early 2010. We’ll be sure to let them get their fill of our award-winning ales, including Gonzo Imperial Porter and our new 20th Anniversary Raging Bitch Belgian IPA.
As a group, American Craft Brewers are about 5% of the national beer market. American Craft Brewers, as a result, have largely decided that we’re all in this together. Many of us have really great friends at other breweries around the country. We all see each other at festivals throughout the year, and it’s great going to try beers from other breweries. The result is a very cohesive and wonderful community, full of really great beer and really great people.
in 12-11-2009 @ 19:06:55
This is Great! I love to see my favorite beers get together! Next time stop by Lancaster Brewing, get all together, and all three places end up in Rehoboth for DogfishHead!!!!