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The chicken or the egg…or CHEGG beer?

When this Beach Haven brewery pays homage to the wing sauce at the famous local brunch place, the result is a beer that is a little hot, sweet, and hoppy.

A surfboard flight at Ship Bottom Brewery in Beach Haven offers (from left) the Cerveza del Playa, Hefe-Nitro, Barnacle Bottom Stout, Stupid Paddle Boat.
A surfboard flight at Ship Bottom Brewery in Beach Haven offers (from left) the Cerveza del Playa, Hefe-Nitro, Barnacle Bottom Stout, Stupid Paddle Boat.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON

New craft breweries seem to be appearing with every new tide at the Jersey Shore, with several more on the way (in Avalon and Wildwood). The best offer a taste of local flair, and that's especially true at witty Ship Bottom Brewery in Beach Haven, the year-old L.B.I. tasting room for Robert Zarko's Media brewery, where the four-glass flights float by on mini-surfboards and the new saison, "Mary Lee, Please Don't Eat Me," offers a beery wink to a great white shark currently trolling the coast. I had lots of good sips from my surfer taster, including an unusual hefe-on-nitro (all creamy banana and clove) and a crispy Mexican-style lager made with corn (the crushable beach brew) called Cerveza del Playa. My favorite, though, was the CHEGG, an odd IPA tribute to the popular breakfast-brunch standby, The Chicken or the Egg, and one of its signature wing sauces called Beesting. As the name suggests, this beer brings a tingle of habanero-cayenne heat with a hint of honeyed sweet. Paired with a bitter hit of IPA hops, it was ultimately so much more drinkable than I expected. Even better news: The latest batch has been canned and is scheduled for release Friday.

  1. Craig LaBan

The Chicken or the Egg IPA, $10 a six-pack and $36 a case, Ship Bottom Brewing, 830 N. Bay Ave. No. 23, Beach Haven, 08008. 609-207-6331, shipbottombrewery.com.