CHERRY HILL, NJ – Flying Fish Brewing Company (1940 Olney Avenue, 856-489-0061), is excited to announce the debut of their new Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA, the latest entry in their “Exit Series” of big-bottle beers honoring their home state of New Jersey. Exit 16 bottles will be available by mid-March and will also on be on draft in limited quantities throughout the region.
“Exit 16 is a fun, flavorful tribute to one of the Meadowlands’ indigenous food sources: wild rice,” says Flying Fish founder Gene Muller. “Even though the area is better known these days as home to pipelines, landfills, and some so-called ‘New York’ sports teams, we see the beauty in the marsh landscape and wanted to celebrate its past and express our hope that it will be restored and preserved in the future.”
On Monday, March 8 from 6 to 8 pm, Flying Fish will hold an Exit 16 launch event in center city Philadelphia at McGillian’s Olde Ale House (310 Drury Street), on the second floor, with Muller and Head Brewer Casey Hughes tapping the first keg. Event will be pay-as-you-go.
Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA is named for the exit that leads travelers across the salt-marsh of the Meadowlands to the Sportsplex and Lincoln Tunnel. The beer was brewed with over 1,200 pounds of wild, organic brown and white rice, which helps the beer ferment dry to better showcase the five varieties of hops that are brewed in. It is later dry-hopped with generous additions of Chinook and Citra hops, creating a complex nose with hints of tangerine, mango, papaya and pine. The Exit 16 label includes a Web site, www.hackensackriverkeepers.org, with more information on preservation and restoration projects in the Meadowlands.
The Exit Series will continue with three or four beers a year to eventually encompass all turnpike exits; other entries have included Exit 4 American Trippel, Exit 11 Hoppy American Wheat and Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout. Recently, in response to the overwhelming popularity of series starter Exit 4, the brewery re-released it in six-packs.
Flying Fish was the world’s first ‘virtual’ microbrewery, establishing an Internet presence as early as 1995. That presence helped to generate press interest and woo investors to the fledgling brewery, which would not open for business until late 1996. Today, Muller and his team oversee four full-time styles, as well as a variety of seasonal beers. Their brews have been featured at the Great British Beer Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival and Canada’s Biere de Mondial Festival. They have won medals at the Great American Beer Festival, Real Ale Festival and the World Beer Championships, and are the only New Jersey brewery featured in Best American Beers. Flying Fish was also named “Local Hero: Beverage Artisan of 2009” by Edible Jersey magazine.
