Childhood nostalgia in a glass: celebrating National PB & J Day

Did you really believe we would be done reviewing dark beers for the year? We would like to think that our loyal readers would know us a little better than that by now. However, in case you did initially believe us when we said we would be done, we’ll just call it a belated April Fool’s Day surprise! Opportunity struck again, and we found ourselves at Bad Habit Brewing for the umpteenth time.

For this week’s edition, we discovered that Bad Habit released their PB & J Day Dark Addiction variations in celebration of National PB & J Day on April 2, which featured strawberry, grape and apricot flavors. As a reminder to our readers who have not had Dark Addiction, it is a chocolate milk stout with strong notes of chocolate and some coffee that comes in at 5.2% ABV.

We were also able to try an orange lager called Moon Juice. If you’re 21+ and happen to find yourselves in Bad Habit like we did, make sure you give the following beers a try!

PB & J Day Dark Addiction – Chocolate Milk Stout with PB & J (5.2%)

Grape Before we begin, we would like to emphasize that every PB & J Dark Addiction was phenomenal. Finding the Dark Addiction for you is contingent on how much you like strawberries, grapes and apricots. That being said, we’re starting off strong with the grape variation. While Caden isn’t much of a grape flavor guy, he was pleasantly surprised. The nose of this beer was pure grape soda with an undertone of peanut butter. Immediately when you take your first sip, the darker grape flavor comes in strong and lingers.

Once the grape flavor began to fade, we noticed the peanut butter notes we were looking for accompanied by a nice creamy note like a cream ale. While the peanut butter flavor wasn’t as strong as we were expecting, the grape flavor carried the beer remarkably. It definitely has a solid argument for being the best of the three and nostalgically brought us back to when we were kids eating PB & J sandwiches or uncrustables at school. If you like grape flavored anything, this is a must try!

Strawberry

Next up is the old childhood classic, strawberry. This beer had much more peanut butter on the nose than the grape did, with an undertone of sweet strawberry. The strawberry flavor comes in quickly with the distinct flavor of sweet strawberry jam, but it does not linger on for too long before transitioning to smooth peanut butter notes.

Out of the three PB & J Dark Addictions, we felt that the strawberry variation was the most peanut butter forward with how prevalent it was on the aftertaste. We would argue that the peanut butter and fruit was closer to a 50/50 split, so if you are looking for a more balanced beer between sweet and savory, give the strawberry flavor a try!

Apricot

To end the PB & J Dark Addictions, we’re going with the apricot variation. The nose had a subtle apricot note with some peanut butter as well. Walking into trying this, we figured that the apricot flavor would be more subtle, but we were wrong. The first sip was all apricot. We loved the sweet flavor profile that offered some tartness as well. It transitioned into peanut butter flavoring, and we were happy that we noticed more of the peanut butter flavor profile than in the grape flavor.

The apricot hit strong and sweet, with a bold peanut butter apricot making this a very flavorful and complete beer. To wrap it up, the apricot variation was as fruit-forward as the grape variation, but the peanut butter stood out slightly more making it more well-rounded.

Moon Juice – Blood Orange Lager (6.0%)

Unfortunately, the fourth PB & J Dark Addiction flavor, peanut butter and banana, was completely gone, so we are going to finish off the flight with Moon Juice! This orange lager pleasantly surprised us and was a great change of pace from the lagers we have had in the past. The beer was like orange juice on the nose, sweet and with the signature sharp citrus note. The flavor of the beer naturally starts off with a strong sweet orange flavor that transitions into a smooth, floral finish.

What caught our attention was that the orange flavor was not reminiscent of the more bitter citrus flavor profile found in IPAs. Unlike IPAs, a good comparison we came up with for Moon Juice was that it was essentially making orange juice into a remarkable beer.

We concluded that it was fantastic summer beer that would also serve as a great beer for those who are new to the craft beer scene or want to begin to explore IPAs.

Moon Juice can easily be a transitionary beer from sours to lagers or lagers to IPAs, it is sweet, versatile and delicious.