Gene Muller's Flying Fish Brewing Company has introduced Exit 9: Hoppy Scarlet Ale
When Gene Muller conceived the idea of creating and naming beers after exits on the New Jersey Turnpike, he only had one “must do” in mind: Something red for Exit 9.
That idea has now come to life. In March, the Flying Fish Brewing Company introduced Exit 9: Hoppy Scarlet Ale.
“It was the logical assumption. Everybody knows Exit 9 is Rutgers,” he said.
Muller, who graduated from Rutgers-Camden in 1977 with a degree in sociology, opened Flying Fish in Cherry Hill in 1995. The company started small and focuses on craft brews. Since then, it has become the largest American-owned brewery in New Jersey, and the second largest in the Garden State.
The idea to do a special series of beers came to Muller he was stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. Given his love of the state (he was born and raised in New Jersey and stayed in the state after college), why not name beers in the series after exits of the most driven on roadway in New Jersey?
The first beer in the series was Exit 4: American Trippel, a Belgian style beer, which was released in 2009. Muller says that the company started at Exit 4 because it’s the New Jersey Turnpike exit you’d take to get to the brewery. Six beers then followed. Exit 1 was an oyster stout, Exit 6, a Wallonian Rye. The beers aren’t made in numerical order, either. The last beer before Exit 9 was Exit 13, a chocolate stout. It’s whatever the company decides to brew at that right time.
The Exit Series beers come in oversized 750 ml bottles, and are limited run (except for Exit 4, which was so popular that they put it in the regular lineup, and you can now buy it in six packs). Exit 9 is the seventh in the series, but Muller he knew from the start that he want to do something red for Exit 9, which is the exit for Rutgers’ New Brunswick Campus, even though the beer isn’t affiliated with the university.
The beer, he says, has “a lot of hops and a lot of red malt. It has five different hops to give it the hop bitterness but also a lot of interest flavors. It also has hints of citrus flavors, tangerine and mango.
The turnpike series hasn’t just elevated the name of the company, Muller says, but is good for New Jersey. “It’s working on a lot of levels,” he says. “It’s selling well. It’s bringing a lot of attention to Flying Fish and also to different parts of New Jersey from people in the state and outside the state,” he says.
On April 27, Flying Fish will be hosting a Rutgers alumni event at the brewery, where you can sample Exit 9 along with Flying Fish’s other brews and get a tour of where the magic happens. Register for the event here. For more information email outreachprograms@winants.rutgers.edu .
To read more about the series – and offer suggesting for upcoming Exit beers, go to www.exitseries.com