Exit 5 Pinelands Sour Forage Ale
Flying Fish Brewing Company

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass. Pours orange red with a fluffy white head that dissipates quickly. Smells of sour fruit, a bit faint but it is still inviting. Tastes of nice sour fruit notes, especially berries. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking, good carbonation. Overall, a very good beer.

 

 

6/1/17...dark gold, heavy white foam, patchy and persistent. Slight citrus nose, outdoorsy meadow nose. Earthy woodsy taste, slight sour. Pine taste, slight sour. Hearty bitter close. Very dry. Tasty blend.

Appearance: pours a golden yellow color with a 1" head that sticks around a while before falling to a thick surface covering.

Smell: loads of citrus, pepper, and yeast create a nice aroma.

Taste: grassy malt presence with some cracked pepper, clove, sour grapefruit, lemon zest, spicy yeast, and a mild woody bitterness.

Mouthfeel: medium bodied beer. Crisp throughout with dryness arrive at the end.

Overall: a nicely flavored beer where the sour tones don't overtake the rest of it. I found this to be quite enjoyable.

A: A billowing paper white head can not help but to consume the greater proportion of the vessel from it's wild yeast nature. Beautiful brassy-gold colored body is hazy with protein with a lively sense of carbonation within. The capping fights against gravity, sticking around with large soapy macro-pockets that leave drabs of chunky lacing behind.

S: Fresh wet forest like scent, clean, wet pine and leaves, with some honey sweet backdrops. Sour lemons peek through with a hint of spearmint. Things are hard to decipher behind the billowy capping, with hints of dry barnyard/hay funk lingering well on the finish.Overall a moderated display of strength.

T: Beautiful lemony-grapefruit twang for flavor, with a helping of fresh oranges. Some wet barnyard funk, barn grains with a bright twang of grapefruit and lightly sour tropical fruit. Some dry pear yeastiness, wet pine highlights with some musky grains mixing with a honey sweetness at knockout.

M: The mouthful was crisp from the lively effervesce. A grapefruit twang sourness hits the tongue, with a decent body per style.

O: Overall really enjoy the flavor here, bright grapefruit and sour tropical fruit blends with a wet pine forest like environment that brings back old memories of my time spent in south jersey. Smooth drinkability, balanced, and a worthy tribute.

 

 

 

$ 9.91 (Including Beer Club discount and tax)/750 mL capped bottle ($ 0.383/oz) from State Line Liquors, Elkton, MD.
Undated bottle served at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Upon opening, foam rose to the top of the neck but did not overflow.
Aroma – a little sour and refreshing, more like a gose than a saison.
Head – Average (Maximum four cm, controlled pour), white, dense small bubbled froth, rapidly diminishing to an irregular three to five mm ring and a thin island.
Lacing – none.
Body – very light yellow like an AAL, slight chill haze, effervescent.
Flavor – begins very herbal and dry. I cannot taste any direct flavors from the pine needles or wintergreen, just a light pepperiness form the goldenrod. The label says there is honey here as well, but fortunately not enough to ruin the taste. There are no hints of hops, malt, or alcohol.
Palate – light, dry, very lively but small-bubbled carbonation reminiscent of champagne.

This is a very interesting brew which I would certainly buy again.

Appearance 3.5, Aroma 4, Flavor 4.25, Palate 4.5, Overall 4.25.

 

 

 

Picked this up recently down at the Total Wine in West Orange. I loved the other beers in the Exit Series and this one was quite enjoyable as well, though it wasn't like other Saison and Farmhouse Ales that I've had. Less cloudy and more floral that I anticipated, this was a smooth beer that went down easily but still left just a bit to be desired in the end.

This had a nice pour to it as the beer was golden, opaque, and a bit hazy and waxy. Enough head was present and the lacing left behind was there as well, but not terribly thick or soapy. Lots of goldenrod in the nose with a herbal undertone and some yeast in the mix for good measure as well. Not a lot of spice in the taste The pine needle flavor came in afterwards but there wasn't much of a wintergreen feel with the exception of a relatively crisp and clean finish to this and the same could be said for the sourness of this beer.

There wasn't a lot of alcohol in this and the bit that was present gave this beer a nice warming effect. While not as outstanding as the other offerings in the Exit Series, this was just as unique as the ones that I've had and enjoyable on it's own. It should almost be categorized as a seasonal or Sour as this had to be one of the lightest beers of this type that I've ever had. Worth a go once if you're making you proverbial way up the Turnpike!

 

 

 

**
10/08/2016

25.4 is bottle to goblet.

LOOK: Yellow color, decent white head, fades slowly, but completely.
AROMA: pine, lemon, earthy goodness.
TASTE: sour fruit, I taste the mint more than I smell it. Esters.
FEEL: decent carbonation, lively feel, medium-light body.

Better than I thought. Too sour at first, but as I got into it, I liked it more.
**

 

25 oz bottle poured into Belgian ale glass. A tribute to New Jersey's vast and unusual pine forest.

L: Slightly hazy pale gold. Pours with 2F head with no retention, no lacing, a little bit of a ring.

S: Leads with sour saison yeast and citrus, but you pick up floral (goldenrod), minty (wintergreen), and pine (pine needles) scents. All subtle, as too much of a heavy hand could have ruined this. Pretty nicely done with these unusual ingredients.

T: Lemon/lime, orange, and yeastiness lead. Again, you pick up subtle hints of the three added ingredients. Wintergreen nearly breaks out of balance.

F: Light to medium bodied, medium carbonation. Pretty crisp. Not quite in balance. Good creativity in construction.

O: When it comes down to it, it's a pretty average saison with a couple of creative twists.