N.J. brewery says ‘FU Sandy’, with superstorm relief fundraising project

Gene Muller at Flying Fish Brewing Company wanted to do something to help those whose lives were torn apart by Hurricane Sandy, but he didn’t know how. Then the idea popped into his head: how about a beer that told Sandy how he really felt?

That’s how Forever Unloved Sandy – which is being called FU Sandy – was born. The Somerdale brewery is making 100 kegs of the beer with 100% of the proceeds going to local Sandy charities that are being nominated by the brewery’s fans on Twitter, Facebook and through emails sent directly to the brewery.

I spoke to Gene about how the beer came about, and the attention his project has already garnered even though the beer isn’t out yet.

JAM: Where did this idea come from?GM: We wanted to do something after the storm. After a couple of months of thinking about it, this popped into our heads, and the name popped into my head. I thought that this would be a fun way to deal with Sandy and show the Jersey attitude.

JAM: What kind of beer is it?GM: It’s a half wheat, half pale ale – a kind of wheat ale. It’s almost like a summery type beer, but we made it a little bit bigger in body for this time of year. We’ve tasted it in the fermenting tank. It’s got a nice mango and tropical taste about it. It should be interesting.

JM: How much is being brewed? Kegs only?GM: We did one batch, and we’ll be kegging that this week. We’ll see how it goes. A lot of people asked us to put it in bottles, but it becomes a lot more complicated when you start bottling things. Right now we just want to see where it goes. 

JM: It’ll be released the first week of February. Where can we get it?GM: We’re still working on the specific details. We’re trying to tie it to an event and pick a day where most people could tap it.

JM: You guys moved recently to a larger facility. Is this something you could have done in your old space?GM: The old one – we couldn’t do anything like this. Fortunately, it’s a slow time of year so we were able to squeeze that batch in.

JM: Are you surprised at all the attention?GM: I’m pleasantly surprised. I was hoping people would get excited about it. Hopefully we’ll sell the entire batch so we can donated all of the proceeds.