Flying Fish

When Gene Muller founded Flying Fish Brewing Co. in 1995, he did so first on the World Wide Web – making it the world’s first virtual microbrewery. That early Web site helped generate positive press coverage and helped attract the investors needed to make the virtual brewery a real one. Muller said the idea was to make the Web site “This Old House meets the World Wide Web”—letting people go behind the taps and see the thousands of details needed to put a microbrewery together.

He also wanted to give beer lovers a chance, via their computers, to roll up their cyber-sleeves and help build the brewery. The site let beer lovers help select and name beers, design t-shirts and labels, volunteer to be a taste-tester and even apply for a job as a brewer. Visitors to the Web site can sign up for FlyingFishMail a monthly e-mail newsletter which now boasts more than 12,000 subscribers.

Muller, who got into the brewing field to become a brewer, trained at Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Technology, America’s oldest brewing school. He quickly realized someone was going to have to run the day-to-day business of the brewery and now serves as President and Head Janitor (though not necessarily in that order).

Flying Fish Brewing Company is located in Somerdale, New Jersey. In a state that once boasted 50 breweries, it is the first microbrewery in Southern New Jersey and the first new brewery built in that part of the state in more than half a century. From its opening in late 1996, Flying Fish has tripled its capacity and become the largest of the approximately 20 craft breweries in the state.

They now produce four full-time styles, as well as a variety of seasonal beers.

The key word to describe all Flying Fish beers is “balance.” The beers are full-flavored, yet highly drinkable. Flavors harmonize, not fight for individual attention. Hopping is generous, but to style. Seeing beer as equal to, if not superior to, wine, Flying Fish beers are designed to complement food. Because of this effort, one can walk into any fine restaurant in the Philadelphia region and be pretty sure of finding a Flying Fish beer available.

Flying Fish beers were the first in the region to be featured at the Great British Beer Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival and Canada’s Biere de Mondial Festival. They have also won several medals at the Real Ale Festival in Chicago, the World Beer Championships and is the only New Jersey brewery featured in the 2000 book Best American Beers.

Flying Fish Belgian Abbey Dubbell

ABV: 7%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Great with smoked foods, cheeses, richer foods, and sushi (the sweetness in the beers pairs incredib
Brewery: Flying Fish Brewery
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: Dubbel

Winner of the silver medal at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival, this Belgian-style Abbey Dubbel is an exceptionally complex beer with many interwoven flavors. This classic-style Abbey beer features an immense head with a fruity nose and a generous body. Malty in the middle, the beer features a clean, almondy dry finish and a slight alcohol warmth. More like a wine than a beer—it has a lot of the qualities of a fine Burgundy. Beer writer Michael Jackson has praised the Flying Fish Dubbel as “a wonderful example of the style.”

Flying Fish Day Daylight Savings IPA

This refreshing session IPA starts with a base Pilsner and Vienna Malt and then showcases the multiple additions of Warrior, Azacca and Citra hops, yielding tropical aromatics with hints of mango and grapefruit. Low in alcohol, BIG in flavor.

  • Malts: Superior Pilsen, Vienna Malt, CaraFoam, Honey Malt, Pale Crystal
  • Hops: Warrior, Citra, Azacca, Simcoe
  • Yeast: Chico Ale
  • Original Gravity: 12.0P
  • Alcohol by Volume: 4.9%
  • IBU’s: 50
  • Formats: 12 oz cans, 16oz cans (only at the ballpark), 1/2 kegs, 1/6 kegs
  • Availability: April 15 to September 1

Flying Fish ESB Ale

Flying Fish Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout

ABV: 7.5
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Oysters on the half shell, grilled steak, chocolatey desserts and by itself.
Seasonal Availability:
 Late Winter
Beverage Type: Stout

Exit 1 is beer brewed with oysters. The creamy flavor of English chocolate and roasted malts harmonizes with minerals from oyster shells. Irish ale yeast adds a bit of fruitiness and a dry crispness. The rich stout is perfect for cool weather-and especially delicious when paired with a few Jersey oysters on the half shell.

Flying Fish Exit 3 Blueberry Braggot

Flying Fish Exit 4 American Trippel

ABV: 10.2
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Delicious when paired with a fish, roasted vegetables, shrimp, and strong cheeses.
Seasonal Availability:
 Year Round
Beverage Type: Belgian Abbey

This inspired Belgian-style Trippel has a hazy golden hue and the aroma of citrus with hints of banana and clove. Predominant Belgian malt flavors give way to a subdued bitterness in the finish. Winner of a Gold Medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival and named by Mens Journal as best Belgian beer brewed in America for 2009.

Exit 5 Pinelands Sour Forage Ale

Exit 5 Pinelands Sour Forage Ale

This beer was inspired by the Beers Made By Walking Project. Along with friends from the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and NJ Conservation Foundation, we hiked through Pinelands National Reserve to bring you this medium bodied Saison. Herbal flavor and notes of foraged pine needles, goldenrod and wintergreen, blend perfectly with the peppery, earthy notes of the Saison yeast.

  • Malts: Superior Pilsner, White Wheat, Cara 8, Acidulated, CaraFoam, Rye
  • Hops: Chinook
  • Yeast: French Saison
  • Original Gravity: 15.6 Plato
  • Alcohol by Volume: 7%
  • IBU’s: 17
  • Formats: 750 mL bottles, 1/6 kegs
  • Availability: Limited Release

Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter

Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter

Nothing highlights the North/South divide of New Jersey more than the breakfast sandwich debate: Egg, cheese and ? Southerners call it pork roll, while further North, it’s called ham. Whatever you call it, it’s good! This dark brown, caramel porter, features aromas of cocoa with hints of maple and smoke from the peat smoked barley. Flavors showcase chocolate, maple, toasted nuts and a bit of spice from the pork roll.

  • Malts: Superior Pilsner, Vienna, Black Prinz, Wheat, Chocolate, Pale Chocolate, Medium Crystal, CaraFoam, Roasted Barely, Peated Malt
  • Hops: Horizon
  • Yeast: Chico
  • Original Gravity: 16.5 Plato
  • Alcohol by Volume: 7.5%
  • IBU’s: 35
  • Formats: 750 mL bottles, 1/6 kegs
  • Availability: Limited Release

Flying Fish Exit 15 Coffee IPA

Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA

ABV: 8.2
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Strong, spicy foods (great with spicy paella or ceviches). Sharp blue cheeses or gorgonzolas. Also pairs well with very sweet desserts.
Seasonal Availability:
 Year Round
Beverage Type: Double IPA

Although usually identified with landfills and pipelines, the Hackensack Meadowlands is an amazingly diverse ecosystem providing vital animal and plant habitat. In a nod to a once common food plant here, we’ve brewed this beer with wild rice. We also added organic brown and white rice, as well as pils and pale malts.

Rice helps the beer ferment dry to better showcase the five different hops we added. Lots and lots of them. We then dry-hopped this Double IPA with even more–generous additions of Chinook and Citra hops to create a nose that hints at tangerine, mango, papaya and pine. This beer pairs extremely well with spicy foods and all kinds of seafood. And of course, it’s quite enjoyable all by itself.

Flying Fish Extra Pale Ale

ABV: 4.8%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Perfect with all foods, spicy, fish, fowl, grilled, pub grub, just not a dessert beer.
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: American Pale Ale

An original American pale ale, our XPA highlights the subtle, sophisticated flavors and aromas of our Midwestern two-row malt and imported aromatic and Munich malts. Pacific Northwest hops create an extremely balanced beer with a beautiful straw color. And thanks to you baseball fans, the XPA is the best-selling local craft beer at the Phillies ballpark.

Flying Fish Farmhouse

ABV: 4.9%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Spicy foods, fish, salads, and anything you can put on the grill. Also makes a great marinade
Seasonal Availability: Summer

A tribute to the highly drinkable “every day” beers from French-speaking Belgium. Contains Belgian two-row pale malt and 7% wheat. This beer is lightly filtered with an earthy, spicy hop character from imported Styrian Goldings hops and a beautiful rich creamy head from the wheat.

Flying Fish Grand CRU Winter Reserve

ABV: 7.2%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Richer dishes, meats, cheeses, stews, smoked foods. As an after-dinner drink.
Seasonal Availability:
 Winter
Beverage Type: Belgian Abbey Style

This Belgian-style strong golden ale showcases a variety of the ingredients and brewing methods that help differentiate Flying Fish beers. The Grand Cru is fermented at a higher temperature than our other beers adding an undercurrent of fruitiness and clove (although there is no fruit or spice in the beer). Very lightly filtered, the Grand Cru exhibits complex mouthfeel, strong malt flavors, a spicy hop presence and a soothing alcohol warmth, followed by a clean, dry finish. It is excellent with food as well as served by itself. Available October 1 to February 1.

Flying Fish Hopfish IPA

ABV: 6.2%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: As a pre-dinner drink (hops are a great appetite stimulant), heartier fare, spicy foods, pizza, pub
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: American Pale Ale

At the request of you hopheads, we produced this I.P.A. with a deep golden color, plenty of hop bitterness balanced by malt sweetness. Because of the extensive dry hopping, there’s a floral and citrus hop finish. It’s then lightly filtered to maintain the appropriate body and flavor. The beer features a combination of American, English and German malts to balance the large amount of hops. The HopFish also uses three hop varieties at five different times and has been dry-hopped for two weeks with 22lbs of Nugget hops.

Exit 14 Imperial Pilsner

Flying Fish Exit 18

Flying Fish Oktoberfish

ABV: 6%
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Best for Wurst!
Seasonal Availability:
 Fall

First released in 2002, and sold out in two weeks. A tribute to the classic Fest styles of Germany the O’Fish uses European malts hops and yeast. A beautiful reddish color, a savory malt profile and nice hop flavor, make this Fest beer quite drinkable. OktoberFish is great with food and especially great with Lederhosen.

Flying Fish Red Fish

ABV: 7.0
Category: Craft / Specialty
Food Pairing: Pairs great with big bold foods like brisket, burgers or a grilled pork loin. Port cheeses and cheddar also pair well with this beer
Seasonal Availability:
 Year Round
Beverage Type: Red Ale

Red Fish is a hoppy red ale. Columbus, Chinook and Cascade hops give the beer a robust piney nose. Two-row, crystal and cara-red malts give the beer a malty background and a 7% abv.

Flying Fish Variety Pack

Includes:  3 bottles each of Extra Pale Ale, HopFish, RedFish and Abbey Dubbel

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