HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY

After nearly a decade at crowded Hillsborough Business Park, FLOUNDER BREWING COMPANY moved to a huge wood-paneled barnhouse on a 19-acre Carraige Farm a few miles away (next to Bellemara Distillery), springtime 2021. Initiated by former homebrewer, Jeremy Lees, the winner of Sam Adams 2016 Brewing and Business Experienceship award, Flounder continues to grow exponentially.

Making great use of plank wood and prestigious wood columns, the stainless steel-tanked interior also offers mezzanine seating. The high-ceilinged, polyurethane-floored, repurposed microbrewery features several community tables, four-seat metal chaired wood tables and a fifteen-barrel system crafting a wide range of one-offs, recurring favorites and splendid dark ales.

Two opposing overhead side doors, one leading to back patio seating with strewn Edison lights, get utilized for outdoor quaffing.

I’d already experienced a dozen or so Flounder brews at the old business park locale before downing six more previously untried libations spanning the gamut from German-styled kellerbier to amber and pale ale to English bitter, nitro porter and spiced-up Christmas ale.

Crisply rustic Kellerbier, Sich Unterhalter, pitched musty raw-grained earthiness to orange-spiced herbal musk over bready pilsner malts.

Soft-tongued dewy peat mossing led easygoing English bitter, One And Done, placing buttery fig-dried nuttiness alongside earthen herbal licks.

Stylishly bold amber ale, Slow Roller, let the orange-peeled grapefruit zesting and dank pine resin of an IPA blend with sweetly spiced amber graining.

Brisk orange-peeled lemon zest brightened lovely floral-spiced pale ale, Almost Persuaded, a sunshiny moderation with mild piney hop bittering.

Dry nutty dark chocolate and mild black coffee bittering sufficed for nitro porter, Post Digger, leaving burnt caramel sweetness upon its charred hop backend.

Festive Christmas ale, St. Nick, plied brown-sugared dried fruiting to dainty cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice seasoning, gingerbread cookie sweetness and singed cedar-hickory wisps.

HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY

In the process of moving to a nearby farmhouse (pictured above), FLOUNDER BREWING COMPANY opened its doors in 2013 at a rustic overhead doored warehouse my wife and I sojourned to late February ’21.

Readied for an April ’21 move to the aforementioned red barnyard, Flounder will operate a spacious 15 barrel system that easily dwarves its initial nano tanked setup. The new brewhouse will include plenty of outside seating and and ample indoor space.

Already familiar with several impressive Flounder offerings such as Hefeweizen, Fred The IPA, For Peats Sake, Breakfast Ale and Sticky Pancakes (fully reviewed in Beer Index), this afternoon’s selection included one Belgian blond and two brunets.

Flounders initial flagship brew, easygoing Belgian-styled Hill Street Blonde Ale seeped orange blossom honeyed lemondrop tartness into mild candi-sugared citrus spicing and delicate crystal malting, curbing its herb-tinged grassy hop astringency in a fizzy mix.  

Lightly beechwood seared brown ale, Smoked Colonial, let peaty cornmeal-floured Colonial yeast, toasted rye breading and nutty tobacco-roasted cocoa coalesce.

Smooth java-bound Espresso Brown Ale brought light-roast coffee tones to milked espresso serenity for fine breakfast fodder.