‘Experience Your Beer’ Soon at Flounder Brewing Co.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a wine gal. However, I consider myself to be an open-minded closet foodie who loves to try all things food and drink related. So when I heard that a beer brewery was going to be opening up in Hillsborough, I had to find out more about it firsthand.

Yes, you heard right. A "nanobrewery" called Flounder Brewing Co. is scheduled to (hopefully) open up near the Hillsborough Cinemas this spring off of Stryker Lane, on Ilene Court. What a great location! Watch a movie, then grab a six pack to take home and experience with family and friends! 

I use the word “experience”, because "Experience Your Beer" is Flounder Brewing’s slogan. As I came to find out, this company is a lot more than just three brothers brewing beer that you chug while watching football. Michael, Daniel and Jeremy Lees are the founders and proprietors of this family brewing business that started eight years ago in Jeremy’s apartment, and it’s come a long way since then.

Jeremy Lees does the chemistry and biology of the beer; Dan Lees works in computers and banking, so he oversees the finances and accounting; and Michael Lees does a lot of the cooking and puts flavoring into the beer.

“It all kind of melds together. The slogan ‘Experience Your Beer’ has to do with enjoying your time together,” says Jeremy Lees, which, the three brothers do enjoy together, and with their family and friends. There’s nothing better than being able to do what you love for a living with people you like.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “flounder,” I think of fish.  However, there’s nothing fishy about this craft beer making company. Flounder Brewing Co. got its name because “Flounder” is Jeremy’s nickname! 

“[My nickname] was given to me on my 21st birthday at the Great Notch Inn, a bar in Little Falls, I went to a lot. I looked a little like Flounder from Animal House and the name stuck.” (I love it when a business has a good story behind its name.)

So why did Flounder Brewing Co. choose Hillsborough to set up shop?

 “I live up in Bedminster and know people in Hillsborough. We’re a package brewery, but have a tasting room, too. Hillsborough is a good central location for distribution,” explained Jeremy Lees, as to why he chose Hillsborough for Flounder’s home.

I’m sure that you probably have heard of microbreweries like I have, but I never heard of a nanobrewery before. My next mission was to find out what a nanobrewery was, and Lees gave me the answer.

“A nanobrewery is not officially recognized,” explained Lees. “It’s the tiniest of breweries out there.”

It means that the brewery produces three barrels or less of beer at a time. 

And Flounder Brewing Co. will only be featuring its proprietary craft beers. There’s its flagship beer, Hill Street Honey Ale, that’s one of Lees’ favorite beers (He recommends enjoying it with red meat or pizza). Then there is the Murky Brown Ale, and two seasonal beers: Gingerbread Brown Ale, and Pumpkin Amber Ale, just for starters. More may come!

“[Hill Street Honey Ale] is a standard American amber ale with a good, sweet-bitter balance,” says Lees. They use citrus hops which adds an orange-citrus smell to it. I was told it has the sweetness of honey, which balances well with the bitterness.

“It’s a nice light beer with about 5 percent alcohol. I’m not a ‘hoppy’ person,” related Lees, with a chuckle, when describing the flagship beer.

“We’ll definitely have seasonal brews. To start, we’ll have one flagship beer [Hill Street Honey Ale] that’s year-round. But we want to offer the seasonal beers to the local people. It lets us have the fun part of playing around with the recipes. I know what I enjoy, but I really want to know what people enjoy,” said Lees.

“Once you enter the world of beers there are all kinds of lesser known beers out there that pair with certain foods,” continued Lees. “There are even beer sommeliers!  Ultimately, it’s all about pairing the right beer with the right person.”

Ah, that makes sense to me. Apparently, I’ve been pairing myself with the wrong beers all along. Who knew!

When Flounder Brewing Co. opens, everyone will be able to walk inside what looks like a real beer brewery on a smaller scale. There are two rooms. “When you walk in there’s a tasting room. There’s a little bar where merchandise is available. All around the room are pictures of me with my brothers and wife doing beer-related things; how we’ve ‘experienced beer.’ Everything in that room can tell a story. We want to introduce people to us and the family, and want people to have good times with family and friends,” said Lees. 

“Behind the bar is my beer glass collection. Then, onto the warehouse with storage shelves. It will look like a small brewing facility,” described Lees.

Since the three brothers all have other jobs, opening a business while working a full-time job has been the biggest challenge since they cannot devote all of their time to the process of getting a business off the ground. That’s why it has been taking a long time.

“The best thing in Hillsborough is that there is an advocate to help businesses get started,” remarked Lees about the town Business Advocate, Gene Strupinsky. “He does a great job. It’s very difficult to start a business like this on the side because of contractors and zoning … Gene has been my eyes and ears and gone to the township.”

Strupinsky actually introduced Flounder Brewing Co. to East Coast Yeast, another Hillsborough business, which has now become Flounder’s yeast supplier for brewing.

“You want yeast to be really fresh,” explained Lees.

Well, I guess you can’t get fresher than having it in the same town that you brew your beer in. There’s no shipping time involved! One strain of East Coast Yeast’s brewing yeast even comes from the Ballantine Brewery (which to beer aficionados, I’m told, is a great thing).

While speaking to Jeremy Lees, I learned a lot about beer. Prior to this, I really had no knowledge of what goes into making it. Lees took Siebel Institute beer making classes in addition to being a self-taught home brewer for almost a decade; so I’d say he definitely knows what he’s talking about and doing.

For example, did you know that Flounder Brewing Co. will have to conduct test brewing before they can open? Hillsborough has different water than from where Lees is from in Bedminster. Lees told me that approximately 95 percent of beer is water, so the water affects the taste of beer.

“There are four key ingredients in beer: water, grains, hops and yeast. Sometimes adjuncts are added. Flounder adds an adjunct to its flagship beer: the Hill Street Honey Ale. New Jersey orange blossom honey gives it a special flavor.” 

No beers are available for purchase just yet, though, because Flounder Brewing Co.’s state liquor license is pending a building inspection as of the date of this blog. They are not yet allowed to legally brew in their business space. The brothers are only allowed to brew in their home right now for personal consumption.

Drawing on my wine experience, I know that wine tasting events are something that wine connoisseurs look forward to. So that made me wonder if beer tasting events were on Flounder Brewing Co.’s radar for the future.

Lees informed me that, “As a package brewing company in New Jersey, we’re not allowed to serve food or have a kitchen. We eventually hope to team up with restaurants in the area. We’re going to be definitely doing food pairings in venues that allow it.”

To me, that sounds intriguing. Until now, I always thought of beer as a ball-game beverage and an occasional ingredient in soups and breads. I thought I’d never say this, but I can’t wait to go to a beer tasting!

So, stay tuned for Flounder Brewing Co. to make a "soft opening" this Spring, where they will do primarily beer tastings at first. They will only be allowed to sell two six packs out of the tasting room for those that go on a brewery tour. The owners are hoping for an official grand opening around Memorial Day, once they have completed a period of test brewing. 

Cheers!

Flounder Brewing Co. also has a facebook page where you can read about the progress it’s making towards opening day. You can also follow them on twitter @flounderbrewing