CARLISLE, Pa. — GIANT Food Stores announced Thursday it is teaming up with Caputo Brothers Creamery of Spring Grove, York County, and Tröegs Independent Brewing of Hershey to provide a treat for beer and cheese lovers alike -- Perpetual Beer Cheese.
All of the milk used to make Perpetual Beer Cheese comes from Pennsylvania dairy farms, GIANT said.
It's the second time GIANT and Tröegs have teamed up to make beer cheese. Last year, the companies teamed up for the successful launch Trogenator Beer Cheese, GIANT said.
This year's partnership is intended to help Pennsylvania dairy farmers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which GIANT says has compounded the problems they face.
"One of the most important parts of the Commonwealth’s agriculture economy, dairy farming supports 52,000 jobs and generates $14.7 billion a year," GIANT said in a press release. "However, challenging market conditions have created a serious threat to the livelihood of many dairy farmers."
GIANT cites statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which state that Pennsylvania lost 370 dairy farms in 2018.
Now, with schools and restaurants closed statewide, GIANT says, demand is down and many farmers have been forced to dump excess milk.
"In a time when a lot of us are feeling helpless, we asked ourselves what we can do to make a difference," says Rynn Caputo, president of Caputo Brothers Creamery. "This partnership with GIANT and Tröegs has already helped keep two dairy farms running, and as it grows, we have the potential to save even more farms.
"This is our opportunity to make a small but important difference in the world, to keep more Pennsylvania farms sustainably operating. If enough people focus on one thing they can do to make this situation better, we can come back even stronger."
The sweet and creamy beer cheese has lively notes of citrus thanks to the addition of Citra hops, an aromatic American-grown flower that is a key flavor component in the best-selling Tröegs beer Perpetual IPA, GIANT said.
At the York County creamery, cheesemakers run warm milk through sacks full of whole-flower Citra hops before pressing it into forms. The cheese then bathes in a brine of saltwater and Perpetual IPA.
In Caputo's aging cave, the cheese gets a daily misting of Perpetual, bringing the beer's aroma to the rind and giving it a golden hue.
“Perpetual is the best-selling IPA in Pennsylvania and is a favorite of many beer drinkers,” says John Trogner, brewmaster and founding brother of Tröegs. “What the team at Caputo did with this cheese is just amazing. It is unapologetically a beer cheese and biting into it and tasting the unmistakable citrus notes of Perpetual makes us as brewers really happy. Local dairies, local beer, local good says it all.”
The new variety of beer cheese is now available exclusively at all 186 GIANT, MARTIN’S and GIANT Heirloom Market locations.
New this year, the exclusive product will also be available for purchase through GIANT Direct and MARTIN’S Direct, the company’s online grocery service.
“The GIANT Company is passionate when it comes to sourcing locally grown and produced products and we’re incredibly proud of our ongoing Caputo Brothers and Tröegs collaboration and the positive impact it is having on our local agriculture industry,” said John Ruane, chief merchandising officer of The GIANT Company. “Our customers loved the first variety we launched last year, and we’re thrilled to introduce this latest flavor that does good in driving more business for our local small food companies and to our dairy farmers.”
