Beer-Making in the Land of Kisses

Beer and chocolate? Hey, D.C.'s own Chocolate City Brewery and Hello Cupcake just had a love child -- and Pennsylvania's Tröegs Brewery is probably just fine with that. After all, the brewery recently relocated from Harrisburg to 200 E. Hershey Park Drive in Hershey, Penn., about 130 miles north of downtown D.C.

Brewery tours of the new Hershey location are self-guided and free of charge. Follow along the glass-lined tour path to witness the beer-making process from fermentation to filtration to quality assurance to the final packaging.

You'll find a 100-barrel brewhouse, a smaller 15-barrel "scratch" brewhouse, and a tasting room -- set up in the middle of the production area -- that can seat up to 150 people.

The scratch brewhouse experiments with smaller batches of beer to create unexpected concoctions. Of the total 26 or so beers they sell, their flagship brews are the Pale Ale, Hopback Amber and their popular Troegenator Doublebock (8.2%).

You can also stock up on your home selection. They offer mix-and-match six packs, cases, growlers -- plus pints, half-pints and flights if you need some, um, "samples" while you're visiting. Tröegs only distributes within a three-hour radius of Hershey to preserve beer freshness.

The brewery is open Mon.-Wed. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. and Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

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