Flying Fish Brewery Announces Exit 4

The First In A Limited-Edition, Big Bottle Series Honoring The Garden State

New Jersey’s largest craft brewery, Flying Fish Brewing Company is flaunting its home-state pride with a new Exit Series of Big Bottle Beers. A fanciful tribute to the New Jersey Turnpike and all the Garden State has to offer, these special brews are Flying Fish’s first foray into large bottles. The first in the series, Exit 4 American Trippel, a Belgian-style bottle conditioned ale, was just released.

“At Flying Fish, we’re proud to hail from the great state of New Jersey,” says Gene Muller, who founded the brewery in 1995. “Our success comes from being focused on our home base, and this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate that in a very public way.”

Exit 4 American Trippel is named for the exit nearest Flying Fish Brewing Company’s headquarters, and is Belgian-inspired to represent their role as one of America’s first craft breweries to embrace Belgian-style beers. Future Exit Series Big Bottles will be named for other exits, chosen based on videos, photos and testimonials submitted to Flying Fish by fans at www.exitseries.com. This series will continue with three or four beers a year to eventually encompass all turnpike exits.

“We were among the first craft breweries to commit ourselves to using the Internet to build and enhance our business, and this new site allows us to reach out to our fans in a tangible way,” says Muller. “New Jersey is great because the people here are great, and we want to make sure that they can participate in this special series of beers.”

With a hazy golden hue and aromas of citrus, banana and clove, Exit 4 American Trippel bears heady malt flavors that give way to a subdued, bitter finish. As a bottle conditioned ale, it will develop as it ages. This one-time-only release is now available until it sells out across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

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 recently named “Local Hero: Beverage Artisan of 2009” by Edible Jersey magazine.

For more information about Exit 4 or Flying Fish, please visit them online at www.flyingfish.com