Jersey's favorite breakfast sandwich is now a beer.

Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter, to be exact, from Flying Fish Brewing Co. in Somerdale.

"Nothing says Jersey like pork roll,'' says a smiling Gene Muller, behind the bar in the brewery tasting room.

Flying Fish, housed in a former Motown Records pressing plant, is celebrating its 20th anniversary - it opened in Cherry Hill in 1996 - by releasing three beers Thursday (Sept. 1) in its popular Exit series, after the New Jersey Turnpike.

There's Exit 14 Imperial Pilsner (8.5% alcohol by volume), a nod to the Budweiser brewery in Newark and the giant neon eagle atop its roof.

Exit 5 Pinelands Sour Forage Ale (7% ABV), a saison made with pine needles, goldenrod and wintergreen, began with a hike with a botanist from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, who pointed out beer-worthy plants.

And then comes Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter (7.5% ABV), a dark brown caramelly porter with a cocoa aroma and hints of chocolate, maple, toasted nuts and spice.

I tried it at the brewery, and liked it, a lot. It's pleasantly smoky, smoother than expected, and does the state's iconic food justice.

North Jerseyans will no doubt raise a hoppy hue and cry over the beer's name - why isn't it called Taylor ham? - but the pork roll used in the porter is indeed Taylor ham, from Trenton's own Taylor Provisions.

Muller originally wanted to release an Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter and an Exit 7A Taylor ham Porter to please both sides of the pork roll/Taylor ham divide, but time didn't allow it.

(For the record, Exit 5 on the Turnpike is Burlington/Mount Holly, Exit 7 is Bordentown/Trenton, and Exit 14 is Newark. Both Taylor Provisions and Case are headquartered in Trenton).

Making a beer from pork roll turned out to be a smelly undertaking, if nothing else. Brewery manager Barry Holsten was the lucky one who got to cook 30 pounds of Taylor ham in his home kitchen. It stunk for hours afterwards.

"I think people will have a love/hate relationship with this one,'' Holsten says of Pork Roll Porter.

Three ingredients you won't find in the beer?

"No egg, no Kaiser roll, no ketchup,'' Holsten says, laughing. "Just celebrating the pork roll.''

The Exit series was supposed to be a three-year project, according to Muller, but it's now year ten. The most popular beers in the series to date: 4 (American Trippel), 16 (Wild Rice Double IPA), 1 (Bayshore Oyster Stout) and 9 (Hoppy Scarlet Ale).

Next year, when Flying Fish, the state's largest craft brewer, reaches its "legal age'' of 21, four more Exit beers will be released: 2, 8, 12 and 17.

"We have some ideas,'' Muller says. "2's the easy one because there's so much agriculture down there.''

The official release of Exit 7 Pork Roll Porter, Exit 5 Pinelands Sour Forage Ale and Exit 14 Imperial Pilsner will take place 4-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 at the brewery, located at 900 Kennedy Blvd., Somerdale.

One special guest: Jamie Miller, crowned Pork Roll Queen at the Official 3rd Annual Pork Roll Festival in May. She won over the judges with a Bloody Mary made with vodka and - what else? - pork roll.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.