Turnpike Suds

Beer!

A New Jersey brewery is using the state's congested and often-derided turnpike to promote its beer...

Cherry Hill-based Flying Fish Brewing Co. (motto: "Proudly Brewed in New Jersey: You Got a Problem with That?") has undertaken an ambitious project of releasing a special beer in honor of turnpike exits, one at a time.

The beers are being made in limited runs and sold in 750 milliliter wine-size bottles.

The first, a Belgian-style ale, came out earlier this year in honor of Exit 4, the exit nearest the suburban Philadelphia industrial park that Flying Fish calls home.

The next beer, Exit 11 Hoppy American Wheat Ale, is scheduled to start hitting bars and stores in the region on July 15. The intersection of styles is a tribute to Woodbridge's exit, where the Turnpike meets the Garden State Parkway.

Naturally the pack of rabid shrews over MADD are... well, mad. As they always are. At everything. But what kinda caught me by surprise was the fact that the Turnpike Authority is making a stir about it:

Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, said it's a bad idea to associate a highway with alcohol. Flying Fish has answered the authority's concerns with disclaimers that the beer isn't endorsed by the authority.

"There's been a brokered peace here," Orlando said. "But don't expect to see it in any of our rest areas."

Uh, okay. Are you really concerned about it, or are you just trying to keep the shrews off your doorstep? I'm betting the latter.

Speaking of...

That doesn't satisfy Mindy Lazar, executive director of New Jersey's chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "The combination of a roadway and advertising for any kind of a beer doesn't make any kind of sense," she said. "This is almost a mockery."

That, of course, is the difference between them and me: I prefer to mock you openly.

Mueller said initially he wanted to have each beer's alcohol content match the exit number — Exit 6 beer, for instance, would have 6 percent alcohol. Most beers have about 5 percent alcohol.

"But then we thought pretty quickly that Exits 1, 2 and 3 were going to be pretty boring for brewing, and then Exits 16, 17 and 18 were going to be really dangerous."

Eighteen percent beer? Tell me more, please.

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(Hat-tip to Kirk M.)