I just got back from an extended weekend at Hershey Park in lovely Hershey PA. It’s a great place to go with the family, as they have a perfect mix of high-octane thrill rides like the StormRunner (YouTube POV video above) and gentler fare for the little ones.
I learned a few things from my trip. One is that it’s impossible for children to have too much chocolate (at least as far as they’re concerned). Two, my four year old daughter is daredevil and will be my coaster buddy when her height catches up with her need for speed – she’s a total lunatic. Three, vacation sucks without good beer. And at Hershey, there’s very little good beer.
Who needs good beer when you have such a stately place to stay? Jim does, that's who.
Well, there’s very little good beer at the Hotel Hershey at least. As a guest of this storied resort I expected them to have the details buttoned up. And for the most part they did, except for the beer.
The only interesting thing room service offered was Yuengling lager. I’m willing to give them a pass on that I guess, as room service is always a limited affair.
Where they really fell down was at Harvest, their on site localvore restaurant. They take great pride that most of the ingredients they use come from within 100 miles of the restaurant. And they put those items to good use, creating delicious and inventive cuisine. But for a place that takes pride in local sourcing, their beer menu was a huge disappointment.
Harvest is within 100 miles of some great breweries, like Troegs, Weyerbacher, Stoudts and Victory. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in their offerings. On tap, they had several macro beers (the usual suspects) and only two Pennsylvania beers; the nice but run-of-the-mill Yuengling lager, and a “Troegs seasonal” which was tapped out. They also offered Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which was shipped in from California. Not a great local showing at all, especially because a highly scientific (or not) poll has determined the Hotel Hershey to be located in the greatest beer state in America.
In the end, I opted for a bottle of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, which paired wonderfully with the smoky chipotle quesadilla I shared with my wife. I later had a Sierra Nevada pale ale from the tap which was a decent companion to the birch beer marinated hanger steak I had for dinner. These were the only two decent beers I had for several days, and neither of them were from Pennsylvania. I feel like I missed an opportunity to have a truly wonderful local food experience.
I have to say that being deprived of good beer made the grown up part of the trip a little less enjoyable for my wife and I. When we got home last night, we put the kids to bed and hit up the beer fridge for some sweet relief. I went right for a Weyerbacher Heresy. It might have been a little too late to make up for what I missed at dinner, but it still hit the spot. It’s good to be home.
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
complain complain complain…. gee what are you some craft beer advocate?!?!?! 🙂
Seems to me they should follow through with the local concept with the beer and wine(I know you didn’t mention wine). Although your last resort beers weren’t to bad, I’ll take an Indian Brown and SN Pale any day over most macro’s, But I also have a soft spot for “lager” (yuengling) which it quite drinkable when there is nothing else.
Hopefully next time they have the troegs tap back and running!
I enjoyed the Yuengling lager I got from room service (and the one by the pool). But with so many great breweries about, it’s a shame that PA wasn’t better represented there. There are some bars in Hershey that have a nice selection, but we stayed “on property” the entire time and I didn’t get a chance to enjoy what the town bars have to offer.
No decent beer or wine last time we went to Hershey, either. You should consider reaching out to Harvest’s manager or such and letting them know your thoughts…they’d probably be thankful for the ideas…like you said, there’s plenty of great stuff to be had from a short distance of them….no friggin excuse!
I just sent the following in an email to the Hotel Hershey:
Here’s Hershey’s “heartfelt” response:
Oh wee, at least I tried.
Perhaps you’ll hear from whoever they pass it on to…I’m sure this went to a general response situation first. Did you include a link to your blog by any chance?! If not, I DO have something to criticize 🙂
No, I didn’t link to the blog. I didn’t want to be all “I’m a beer blogger” with them. I figured they wouldn’t care and I didn’t want to come off like I’m trying to be a big shot because I write about beer for free on the Internet.
Geez, perfect! Well said…I have no criticism of that letter…how unlike me!
sumtimez I writes guud.
The Hershey Hotel should take a lesson from Sandy Swider, VP of Four Points by Sheraton who hired a “Chief Beer Officer.” Check out this article from the NY Times, May 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/nyregion/21about.html
The Hershey Hotel should at least Google “Beer in PA.” That would be a start. But I think every serious food establishment and hotel should have someone who knows about beer, even if it’s their *gulp* wine person.
A lot of sommeliers are knowledgeable in both beer and spirits as well, but it’s only a recent thing…they never used to know anything but wine. They see the growing trends in food pairing with OTHER fine beverages and figure out that they better get with the program if they wanna be valuable. I don’t think you really need TWO people, one with wine knowledge and one with beer….you just need to find ONE good person and make sure they are experienced (if not then get them the experience) in both.
I think taking beer seriously is the first and most important step for restaurants and hotels. And I think more and more will as the craft beer market share continues to grow. But it’s still a rare thing to see it done right.