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Flying Fish Brewing Co. - motto: "Proudly Brewed in New Jersey: You Got a Problem With That?" - has undertaken a project of releasing a special beer in honor of the 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 this year in honor of Exit 4, the Camden-Philadelphia exit near the Cherry Hill 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 Wednesday. The beer's merging of styles is a tribute to the Woodbridge exit, where the turnpike meets the Garden State Parkway.
Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, said it was a bad idea to associate a highway with alcohol. Flying Fish has responded to the authority's concern with disclaimers that the beer is not 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."
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."
Brewery president Gene Muller said that's not the case. "The one thing that both of us agree is, drinking and driving is never an option," he said.
The company plans to introduce more exit beers every few months.
Muller, who founded Flying Fish in 1995 and has overseen its growth into the biggest New Jersey-based brewery, said he was not sure if all 29 exits would get their own beers.
Muller said he hoped Flying Fish fans will help come up with future beer concepts linked to the exits, some of which are near malls, the Meadowlands, and peach orchards, not to mention right under planes landing at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Muller said he initially 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," he said.
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