When I saw that Wild Ride Brewing and Caldera Brewing had teamed up to brew PB & J, a peanut butter and marionberry ale, I knew that I had to pick some up and that it could be fun article for The Bulletin. Hence, the beer made it into the paper in my latest print article delving into the background and flavors of it.

[Wild Ride head brewer Mike “Curly”] White worked with Caldera owner and brewmaster Jim Mills to develop the recipe. They knew they wanted to incorporate the peanut flavor used in Wild Ride’s Nut Crusher Peanut Butter Porter, while being different from that beer, “but also something that Caldera has lots of expertise in creating,” according to White.

PB & J was brewed at Caldera, with Wild Ride providing the peanut flavored extract to ensure the beer was allergen-free. White and Mills collaborated on the base recipe, and White credits Mills with tackling the additions. “Jim had the biggest challenge with this first batch as neither of us had mixed these two types of flavors together in one beer before,” he said. “Jim took a painstaking task in making sure this first batch blended phenomenally.”

The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is does the beer taste like peanut butter and jelly? Essentially, yes. The beer pours a deep amber brown color with a bare tinge of purple. The aroma conveys nutty peanuts, a light touch of berries, and even a bit of bread crust, definitely reminiscent of a PB & J sandwich.

Read more for the rest of my tasting notes. I will say, it’s a pretty good beer and does in fact convey a peanut butter and jelly sandwich experience!

A couple of additional notes: first, when I went to purchase a six-pack of PB & J from the brewery (quick trip, fully masked, in-and-out), it was the day after the release party and there was not much left in cans—the bartender told me they’d sold several flats at the party. There should be some in distribution so keep an eye out for it. But that comes to the second note: the breweries are planning a second batch to be brewed at Wild Ride in the near future, and White told me they will switch up the fruit from marionberry to possibly grape. So that’ll be an interesting one to look for as well.