Sweet Baby Jesus! I just had to say that, you know. The label on my bottle of DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus!  Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter told me I would when I took a sip of this beer, and you know, they were right. This is some seriously good brew. This is actually my first brew ever from this Abingdon, Maryland brewer, but if Sweet Baby Jesus! Is any indication of the quality of their beers, it surely won’t be the last.

The notion of a chocolate peanut butter beer definitely got my attention. One of the local brewers here in Georgia, Terrapin of Athens, released one of these beers as part of their Side Project series of one-off brews. Now, I had not missed any of the Side Project beers before Liquid Bliss, terrapin’s version of a chocolate peanut butter porter, but this beer flew off store shelves so quickly that I couldn’t find it anywhere. And believe you me, I looked.

Thankfully, a trip to DC recently scored me a bottle of Sweet Baby Jesus! thanks to the generosity of beer legend Chuck Triplett. Thanks Chuck!

DuClaw says of this beer on the neck label:

A classic, full bodied robust porter with a smooth, dry finish and just enough hops to balance aromas and flavors of roasted malt, chocolate, and peanut butter so rich that just one sip and you will….exclaim the name!

Less impressive, the label does call this a porter with “artificial flavors”. Not so sure about that part. Some details from the website:

Hop Variety:  Fuggle, Goldings 

Grains:  Pale Malt, Chocolate Malt, Crystal Malt, Black Malt, Brown Malt, Roasted Barley 

Bitterness:  53 BU's 

Gravity:  16 plato 

Alcohol Content:  6.5% abv 

DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus! Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter pours to a dark brownish black color with a medium sized head formation and an absolutely wonderful nose of fresh roasted peanuts and chocolate. Taking a sip, the beer has a medium body and light chocolate up front followed by a delightful nuttiness. There isn’t a lot of sweetness, which I think is a good thing. That lack of sweetness makes the beer more like a liquid Mary Jane’s candy than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup to me, complete with chunky peanut flavor. The finish is dried nicely with a gentle hop bitterness and a bit of grassy aroma.

I could drink this one all night. It’s so smooth and chocolaty, and packed with luscious nutty flavor. You really can taste the peanuts here, which is saying something. A number of nut beers I’ve tasted of late don’t really get a lot from the use of nuts. This one certainly does. It’s a beer like few you’ve tasted before, and one to break out for your drinks that think they don’t like good beer. Pour them a glass and I’m sure they too will exclaim “Sweet Baby Jesus!”.

Update 1/14/2021: Picked up a crowler of DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus! Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter at Stout's recently for a very reasonable $10.25. The brewery website says this beer is now 6.2% by volume, slightly less than the last time I had it.

Sweet Baby Jesus 2020 pours to a dark black color with a moderate head of creamy tan foam and an irresistible nutty peanut and chocolate nose. Taking a sip, the beer is moderate in body, appropriate to a porter, rich chocolaty, wonderfully peanuty with skins and shells like fresh roasted. It reminds me more of a Mary Jane than a Reeses. But if you want fresh roasted peanuts and chocolate, they are here. Finishes dry balanced with roast. Still one of the best "peanut butter cup" beers in my estimation.