 | |
| Founded | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | , |
Production output | ~30,000 U.S. barrels [1] |
| Website | flyingfish |
Flying Fish Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in Somerdale, New Jersey. Founded in 1995 by Gene Muller in Cherry Hill, it moved to its Somerdale location in 2012. It is today the largest craft brewery in New Jersey.
Flying Fish was established in 1995 as the world's first virtual microbrewery, something novel that drew a lot of attention. Flying Fish sold their product completely over the internet and shipped it to the customers location. Capitalizing on this early notoriety, founder Gene Muller took Flying Fish into brick and mortar, constructing the first microbrewery in South Jersey. Following his success online, Muller partnered with Andrew Newell to help secure funding for a permanent establishment. While New Jersey once boasted more than 50 breweries, Flying Fish was the first new brewery built in Southern New Jersey in more than 50 years.[ citation needed ]
After opening in 1996, Flying Fish hit financial trouble due to a "craft brewing bubble" that popped. Many of the craft breweries closed down due to lack of profit and over saturation of the market. With this level of competition, Muller recalls the time as very difficult to stay afloat. [2] Flying Fish was able to gain more funding so it could buy a larger volume of packaging, making their pricing more competitive in the market and was able to stay open.[ citation needed ]
Business grew, and Flying Fish began to produce a range of beers year-round, along with a variety of seasonal specialties. Flying Fish beers are ten-time medal winners at the Great American Beer Festival, the most of any New Jersey brewery. In 2012, Flying Fish moved from Cherry Hill to its new facility in Somerdale, making it the largest brewery built in the state since prohibition. The transition saw Flying Fish go from a 10,000 square ft. to 45,000 square ft. building and increase productivity from 20 barrels to 50 barrels at a time. However, due to new automation in the Somerdale location it has been able to brew three times the amount of beer in less time. The tasting room at Somerdale offers weekly one-off and barrel aged beers.[ citation needed ]
On November 9, Flying Fish announced that Gene Muller would be moving solely to the founder position of Flying Fish. In his stead Lou Romano became president, effective November 20, 2017. Romano, who began working in the beer business at age 16, came most recently from Oskar Blues Brewery, where he served as National Sales Manager since 2013. Before that, Romano served in a variety of capacities, including Director of Marketing & Wholesaler Development, for D. G. Yuengling & Son. [3]
This facility boasts many sustainability features, to increase water and energy conservation, to brew the award-winning beer in the most environmentally friendly way possible. In 2014 Flying Fish worked alongside the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey in an effort to help educate locals about the Piping Plover "Bahamas Project" and showed a connection between The Bahamas and the U.S. for the endangered beach nesting bird species. [4]
Flying Fish is also known for its ties to the community: each year, the company donates more than $100,000 in goods, services and merchandise to local nonprofit causes. Flying Fish also has partnered with Great American Brewery Runs, an organization that partners with local breweries to host festivals and charity runs. Flying Fish hosts the "Flying Fish 5k" at its Somerdale location. [5] In 2013, following the events of Hurricane Sandy, Flying Fish crafted a new hybrid beer called "Forever Unloved Sandy" in which all proceeds went to charitable efforts to restore New Jersey. [6]
Regular seasonal drafts are the Oktoberfish, Farmhouse Golden Ale, and Grand Cru Winter Reserve. The latter two are bottle-conditioned. Less available (often only in growlers at the brewery) are Big Fish Barleywine, a Coffee Porter, Love Fish (a cherry-infused Belgian Abbey Dubbel available around Valentine's Day), Black Fish, and Imperial Espresso Porter. In January 2012, Flying Fish added Red Fish, a hoppy red ale, to its lineup.[ citation needed ]
In the summer of 2004, Flying Fish produced a blueberry flavored Abbey Dubbel available only in 1/6 kegs to recipients of the brewery's mailing list.[ citation needed ]
First in the region to be featured at the Great British Beer Festival, Flying Fish has also been featured at the Oregon Brewers Festival and Canada's Biere de Mondial Festival and has also won several medals at both the Real Ale Festival in Chicago and the World Beer Championships.[ citation needed ]
In 2009, Flying Fish began releasing a series of beers named after New Jersey Turnpike exits, each in styles intended to represent the part of the state served by that exit. New beers in the series are released at variable intervals, usually several months apart, with an extended hiatus as Flying Fish moved into their new facility in 2012. The inaugural release in the series honored the brewery's home exit, Exit 4, in March 2009.
The Exit Series generated some controversy with the New Jersey chapter of MADD criticizing an implied association between driving and alcohol.[ citation needed ]
| Exit | Name | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Exit 4 | American Trippel | March 2009 |
| Exit 11 | Hoppy American Wheat | July 2009 |
| Exit 1 | Bayshore Oyster Stout | October 2009 [7] |
| Exit 16 | Wild Rice Double IPA | March 2010 [8] |
| Exit 6 | Wallonian Rye | June 2010 [9] |
| Exit 13 | Chocolate Stout | December 2010 [10] |
| Exit 9 | Hoppy Scarlet Ale | March 2011 [11] |
| Exit 8 | Chestnut Brown Ale | February 2012 |
| Exit 3 | Blueberry Braggot | February 2015 [12] |
| Exit 15 | Coffee IPA | October 2015 [13] |
| Exit 18 | Baltic Porter | February 2016 [14] |
| Exit 5 | Pinelands Sour Forage Ale | September 2016 [15] |
| Exit 7 | Pork Roll Porter | September 2016 [15] |
| Exit 14 | Imperial Pilsner | September 2016 [15] |
| Exit 2 | Rosemary Double IPA | February 2017 [16] |
| Exit 12 | Maibock | May 2017 [17] |
Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. Thirteen Trappist monasteries—six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, England, France, and Spain—currently produce beer, but the Authentic Trappist Product label is assigned by the International Trappist Association (ITA) to just ten breweries which meet their strict criteria. As of 2021, Achel is no longer recognized as a Trappist brewery because it does not have any living monks.
India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale.
Victory Brewing Company (Victory) is a brewery founded in 1996 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, United States. The main brands are HopDevil, Prima Pils, Headwaters Pale Ale, Golden Monkey, DirtWolf, and Storm King, which are distributed in 34 states and nine countries. Victory Brewing is located at 420 Acorn Lane Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335.
Flying Dog Brewery is a craft brewery located in Frederick, Maryland. It was founded in 1990 by George Stranahan and is the largest brewery in Maryland. As of 2017, Flying Dog is the 28th largest craft brewery in the United States.
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 active breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries including Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 liters of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Brewery Ommegang is a brewery located near Cooperstown, New York, United States, that specializes in Belgian-style ales.
Fordham & Dominion Brewing Company, founded in 2007 in Dover, Delaware, is a brewery that produces a variety of craft beers and craft sodas.
Tröegs is an American brewery located on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey, Pennsylvania. John and Chris Trogner founded the company in 1996. Tröegs is a craft-brewery, or microbrewery focusing their production on specialty and seasonal beers. Tröegs also is a limited distribution brewery, only distributing beer to states within proximity to maintain beer freshness.
The North Coast Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Fort Bragg, California. As of 2018, it is the 46th-largest craft brewer by annual sales volume in the United States.
Russian River Brewing Company is a brewery and brewpub in downtown Santa Rosa, California, with a second location in Windsor. The company is known for strong India pale ales and sour beers.
Odell Brewing Company is an independent craft brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. It's the 23rd largest U.S. craft brewing company by the Brewers Association. Odell Brewing is known for their hop-forward and balanced IPAs.
Triangle Brewing Co. (TBC) was a microbrewery owned and operated entirely by business partners Rick "the Brewer" Tufts and Andy "the Bloke" Miller who, in 2005, resettled in Durham, North Carolina from Connecticut. Andy Miller had extensive local restaurant management experience, and Rick Tufts apprenticed at Flying Fish Brewing Company and was an avid homebrewer long before founding a new brewery. TBC began selling beer on July 4, 2007 and was the only microbrewery in Durham. The arrival of a microbrewery in Durham is arguably part of the current downtown art, building, and cultural Renaissance.
Captain Lawrence Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Elmsford, New York. The brewery is owned and run by head brewer Scott Vaccaro. Vaccaro, a homebrewer since 1995, trained in brewing science at UC Davis.
The Smisje Brewery, with a tiny production of only 200 hectoliters per year, is one of the smallest existing Belgian craft breweries. Begun in 1995 by former printer and homebrewer Johan Brandt, it was originally titled "De Regenboog", the same name as his earlier printing business. Brandt is also a bee-keeper, which accounts for the prominent use of honey in some of the brewery's offerings, including its first commercial beer, which was named 't Smisje or "the little blacksmith" to reflect the hand-crafted nature of the product as well as a local landmark blacksmith's house near the brewery's original location.
Shmaltz Brewing Company is an American craft brewing company headquartered in Troy, New York, US. Originally primarily known for its He'Brew flagship brand, the company produces a large line of Shmaltz Brewing beers and numerous other brands including 518/838 craft beers and the Alphabet City Brewing brand. It also produced Coney Island Craft Lagers until that brand's acquisition by Boston Beer Company in 2013.
Beer is produced through steeping a sugar source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt. Descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest known writing of any sort. Brewing is done in a brewery by a brewer, and the brewing industry is part of most western economies. In 19th century Britain, technological discoveries and improvements such as Burtonisation and the Burton Union system significantly changed beer brewing.
River Horse Brewing Co. is a craft brewery in Ewing Township in Mercer County, New Jersey. It was started in 1996 but then came under new ownership in 2007. It is NJ's second largest craft brewery, after Flying Fish Brewery.
Flounder Brewing Company is a microbrewery in Hillsborough in Somerset County, New Jersey. Started by Jeremy Lees as a homebrewing hobby, it grew to encompass other members of the family including his brothers, Daniel and Michael, and his cousin William. The brewery opened to the public in October 2013, and was first sold to the public at the Fox and Hound Tavern in Lebanon, New Jersey. It was New Jersey's 12th Limited Brewery license and one of the first nano scale breweries in New Jersey, producing an estimated 50 barrels of beer per year.
The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular, or GABS as it is commonly known, is a beer and food festival that celebrates the diversity and creativity of craft beer. It is run by The Local Taphouse beer bars each year in Melbourne and Sydney and in 2015, almost 23,000 people attended the events.
The Blackstone Brewing Company is a craft brewery in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded by Kent Taylor and Stephanie Weins in 1994, it claims to be Nashville's oldest craft brewery. The original brewpub, called Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery, opened on New Year's Eve 1994 and operated until 2016. In 2011, the company built a production brewery nearby and opened a tap house for the public in 2016. Blackstone also brews traditional European lagers for the Nashville Brewing Company. Blackstone Brewing Company has received more awards than any other brewery in Nashville, winning multiple medals at the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival.