Catawba Brewing Company | Peanut Butter Jelly Time Brown Ale

Hello, my name is Rob. I am 36 years old and I eat the same lunch that I ate in elementary school just about every day; peanut butter and jelly. I’m not ashamed, it’s awesome, it’s easy and it’s cheap. So as I sip on a beer holding the same name know this, I ate a PB&J not 5 hours ago.

The fine folks at Catawba Brewing Company next door in North Carolina have recreated this wonderful lunchtime memory in a beer. While many would revert to an extract for the raspberry flavor, not Catawba. These guys let a brown ale sit on raspberries and roasted peanuts for weeks! They’ve also been brewing it since 2012 – why I haven’t had it until now I’m not sure. Let’s check it out.

This beer pours a medium amber with a full, effervescent head. It’s unfiltered and immediately I get raspberry on the nose followed by gentle wafts of peanut butter. On the tongue raspberries come through first and the peanut flavor lingers on the palate. There’s a soft sweetness at the back perhaps from the raspberries, perhaps from the malt. Regardless it is welcome and wonderful. Body is low to medium and with each sip the head strikes back up wafting forward more scents of raspberry.

Final snobs: I’ve had a lot of beers that have some sort of a theme, some good, some not. This beer is legit. No extracts, no tricks, straight up beer and beer done well. At 5.7% ABV this is very drinkable as well. It is as advertised and for this beer snob. I might just have to pack this for lunch tomorrow. Beer is made from grain so this is pretty much the equivalent of a sandwich, right?

Prost!

Glass by Pretentious Glass Co – Ale Glass