Thursday, February 9, 2012

Flying Fish bottled up, but Exit 8 beer isn't yet

An overdue shipment of bottles is all that's keeping you from pairing Flying Fish Brewing's newest Exit Series beer with some aged gouda or roast pork, a couple of suggested foods from the brewers.

With one foot still in Cherry Hill and another in the new location of Somerdale, plus no new exit beer in sight for almost a year, Flying Fish put out word last week that the answer to the question of "What's the next exit?" would be a Belgian brown ale brewed with chestnuts and honey from local growers and apiaries in a nod to the state's farming region around Exit 8 and East Windsor Township.

(Memo to FF: Revisit this area in the fall with a nod to West Windsor and Grover's Mill, the site of the Martian landing in War of the Worlds and Orson Welles' 1938 Mercury Theatre radio broadcast that panicked the pants off everyone. Bet those folks could have used a big Belgian brown back then to help 'em settle down.)

After lighting up the Twiter-sphere with the heads-up on Exit 8, Flying Fish then followed up with word that the beer is ready to be bottled, if only they had the bottles: "Our bottle supplier said we’d get them in December. Then January. Now those really cool, really limited 750 ml bottles are supposed to arrive in another two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed."


Alas, Flying Fish being all bottled up and waiting for those bottles is a situation in which we all share some blame. The monster growth in craft brewing – thanks to folks drinking the beer – has  thrown some curves to the beverage container industry, with some suppliers struggling to keep pace with demand.

Beer details: 8.3% ABV. Hops – Mount Rainier, Chinook, Fuggles and Columbus.

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