Exit to ale

If you read Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie’s New Jersey Breweries guidebook, you’d know that Flying Fish was planning a special beer series to bottle a little bit of Jerseyana. Specifically, the brewery planned its own take on the time-tested NJ Turnpike "what exit" humor.

Now, at last, the path to new beer has been paved, and you can take Exit 4 with a drive to the packaged goods store. (We picked up three of the bomber bottles last week at a Canal's in Marlton, but haven’t had a chance to try it yet.) And if you’ve got tall tales about the Turnpike or videos, FF has set up a Web site where you can share them.

Exit 4, by the way is Mount Laurel (or Philadelphia/Camden Aquarium, if you’re looking at a toll ticket), right down the road from the brewery in Cherry Hill. Besides being the back of a green FF shirt with the numeral depicted in bottle caps, Exit 4 is also an American turn on a Belgian trippel. As FF points out, the choice reflects the brewery's long history of turning out Belgian styles (i.e. their dubbel, grand cru and farmhouse ale).

This beer series poses some important questions. For instance, what happens if you miss the exit? Probably can’t buy a bottle with E-ZPass, right? Guess there’s no chance of it being poured at the Walt Whitman rest stop, huh? And what’s the next exit after Exit 4?

The answer to the last question is: You get to help decide with your tales and videos.