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When it comes to interesting flavor combinations in beer, what comes to mind? How about chocolate and coconut, vanilla and coffee, or coconut and lime? Wild Ride Brewing Company dabbles in all of these pairings in its beers, and just introduced a new one — peanut butter and jelly.

Wild Ride teamed up with Ashland’s Caldera Brewing Company to release PB & J Brown Ale, a beer that celebrates the flavor of everyone’s favorite childhood sandwich. The two breweries combined Wild Ride’s peanut-flavored extract with marionberries to build that signature flavor profile.

I reached out to head brewer Mike “Curly” White to learn more about how PB & J came about.

“We’ve always had a respect for Caldera and with sharing the same distributor, Point Blank, we’ve also developed relationships with their whole team,” White said via email. “This collaboration was something that had been talked about for quite awhile so (we) were really happy that we were able to get it rolling.”

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.

Caldera Brewing opened in 1997 and brews a wide range of styles (the restaurant in south Ashland boasts 45 different beers on tap). In 2005 it began canning its beers, becoming the first craft brewery on the west coast to do so. In addition to a standard lineup of IPAs, German-style lagers, and dark ales, Caldera brews a number of specialty beers incorporating fruits, chocolate, rose petals, coconut, and more.

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.

It’s more subtle in the flavor, which starts with the light peanut character similar to how Nut Crusher tastes. The fruit has a light touch as well, following up the nuttiness with a savory berry note that’s dry and slightly tannic. I’d call it a bit of a deconstructed peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a toasty, bready malt base.

Ultimately it’s interesting and nicely drinkable, and delivers on the PB & J promise without becoming cloying or overbearing.

The beer is released on draft and in cans, and is limited, but Wild Ride plans to brew another batch at its brewery. “We will brew another batch here at Wild Ride but will switch the fruit from marionberry to most likely grape,” said White. “We really enjoyed working with Caldera and meeting their team at their brewery. They will be coming to Redmond to help with the PB & J batch here as soon as we set a date.”

If you get the chance to taste this beer, I recommend it. And yes, it definitely pairs well with an actual peanut butter and jelly sandwich!