I took a trip over the bridge this weekend with my old roommate Anthony and his girlfriend, Cristin, to Flying Fish Brewing Company in Cherry Hill. It was surprisingly easy to get to, although that may have been because we were using Ant's new GPS. Driving down their street, I was a little surprised that a brewery would set up shop right in the middle of an industrial park, but sure enough the logo came into view and we were there. We followed the happy voices through the entryway back to the bar/shop where everyone gathers for samples. We stayed hydrated thanks to Adam, Flying Fish’s Jersey sales-guy. He kept the LoveFish flowing from the tap and had bottle after bottle of their standards moving from the fridge to our cups.
Of course, one doesn’t wander into a brewery without taking the tour, which we were lucky enough to catch the last one of the day. They have quite a spacious, clean, and well-kept setup, with the flow of ingredients meandering along the circumference of the warehouse. Their new bottling machine is capable of a mind-bending 170 bottles per minute (coincidentally, also the rate at which I consume beer) and can fill 750ml bottles, so look for special "classy" releases from them in the future.
I piped up with a few questions about how they were dealing with the lack of cheap ingredients. It turns out they were able to seal in a few very good deals for their hops, so they won’t immediately be hurting. Of course, the prices will go up (in one batch, $17k worth of hops became $76k worth…) but they’re going to try to absorb as much as they can before passing it all on to us. They're not planning on cutting any beers from their list; if anything, they're hopefully going to come through with a few additions.
As for the beers, I didn’t try one I didn’t like in some way. If I would say any of their brews were "must-drinks," I’d have to point to their Belgian Abbey Dubbel and Imperial Espresso Porter. The LoveFish was even better (it’s their base Dubbel brewed with cherries for Valentine’s Day), but bottles of that were long gone. Six-packs of available beer run $8, but you’re limited to two per person.
I'd like to set up a tour for PBC to head over and visit. April 1st is supposed to bring a new brew, which may be available at the brewery towards the end of March. Maybe once we all sleep off Philly Beer Week, we can head over and check them out.
PS: One thing I couldn’t stop thinking about is all of the CO2 released during the brewing process. I did a little googling to find that a brewery in Colorado has found a use for it. New Belgium Brewery (which makes the Fat Tire Ale I came to like so much in Arizona) pumps the CO2 over to Solix Biofuel so that their algae can suck it up and emit biodiesel. Beer waste becomes fuel—I feel like Homer tanking up at the ethanol pump: one for you, one for me…