John Trogner Brews Beer with his Brother and You Don’t

For many entrepreneurs, going into business for themselves is the dream on its own. Whether they are manufacturing widgets or running a storefront – the ‘what’ doesn’t matter. It’s the how. Calling the shots, controlling your fate, answering to no one. This is what attracts many self-starters. Being your own boss might be good enough for many, but what if … you could brew your own beer?

John Trogner and his brother Chris did just that. They are the founders of Tröegs Brewery, an independent brewing company in Hershey, PA. They can trace their beer’s story back to Boulder, Colorado – the unofficial nation’s capital of the microbrew. But it wouldn’t be long before the Trogner boys came back home to PA.

John spoke to Owner’s Mag about what many people call ‘the dream’: brewing beer with his brother.

How did Tröegs get its start? What made you want to get into brewing for yourselves?

John: After I graduated from college back in the early to mid-’90s, I was working in a high-rise in downtown Philly. It just so happens that the original Dock Street Brewery was on the first floor of my building. I’d go down after work and have these really interesting beers. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were, but I knew I liked them. There were other beers I was getting into, too, like Pete’s Wicked, Sierra Celebration, and Brooklyn Brown. At the same time, my brother Chris was out in Boulder, Colorado, and the beer scene was taking off out there. 

Chris eventually convinced me to join him in Colorado. Within a week, I got a job at the Oasis Brewpub by walking in and asking how I could help. It was trial-by-fire. I was cleaning tanks and learning everything I could, and because I showed up sober and on time, I was eventually promoted to brewer. 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. 

How would you describe the independent micro-brewing community?

John: It’s obviously grown a huge amount, and there are a lot of different ways to approach the business of beer these days. Speaking for Tröegs, we’ve always been focused on keeping the art and science of brewing first.

What is your experience blending your crafts with customer service and working with the public? 

John: There has to be trust between us and our customers. Our home state of PA 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.

What’s the best part of your job?

John: Giving back to our home state. We’re PA natives, and that’s a big part of our identity. Building a business here 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. Just this year, we’re committed to buying 50,000 pounds of local grain for Troegenator and another 100,000 for Field Study and LolliHop. We’re finally at the point where we can make a significant impact from an agricultural standpoint. And those roots keep stretching deeper and deeper. When we share those stories, our fans really connect to us and our beer and food. It paints a bigger picture and gives them a sense of pride. 

Is there a particular ‘we made it’ moment that stands out?

John: Not really. We’re always focused on continuous improvement, and that takes everything we’ve got. 

There are three beers that, looking back, were really an inflection point for Tröegs. For the first few years, Tröegs was surviving, but I wouldn’t say that we were thriving. One day, Chris said, “If we’re going to go down, we’re going to have fun doing it.” We shifted from brewing a few straightforward beer styles to trying some things that no one else was doing at the time. 

Over the next few years, we released Troegenator, Mad Elf and Nugget Nectar. Those beers really put us on the map and changed the destiny of Tröegs. 

Where would you like to see Tröegs in 10 years?

John: If there’s one thing we’ve learned in 25 years of business, it’s that we must perpetually evolve. It’s been our ability to pivot, try new things, and take risks that has kept us moving forward, and we have a great team in place to continue to do just that. 

There’s a Darwin quote we think about a lot: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” 

We’re constantly refreshing our lineup with new beers born from the strength of our Scratch Beer series and an ever-changing thirst for flavor and innovation. We brew around 100 new recipes a year, from old-world classics to the fringes of what’s new in ingredients, technique, and flavor.

We’re also investing in a new canning line and some sustainability benchmarks. It’s safe to say that we’re perpetually under construction. 

How did COVID impact your business? How did you work around it?

John: The initial lockdown required us to make dramatic changes to continue operating the production brewery and to deal with closing our retail business. We’re really proud of our co-workers for never missing a beat, sticking with us as we recalled the team, and embracing the new safety protocols required to keep everyone working. 

Early and often, we communicated with our wholesale and retail network to figure out what was happening in the market. And we focused on being a bright spot for our customers, offering consistent availability of our core beers as well as new releases and new flavors to try. 

We also believe customers care about companies who are doing good and are spending with a conscience more than ever before. We have kept up our charitable and community efforts and put a focus on helping out-of-work service industry workers and frontline hospitality workers. 

While draft (beer) has really dwindled for us, our positive trends with packaged beer indicate that many of our fans have stuck with us. But we are eager to see the safe return of bars and restaurants.