Skrewball's PB&J Whiskey Is the Brand's Most Ambitious Move Since 2018
Eight years ago, Steven and Brittany Yeng introduced America to something it didn't know it needed: peanut butter whiskey. The reaction from the spirits industry was somewhere between bewilderment and outright dismissal. Bartenders scoffed. Traditionalists clutched their Pappy. And then the bottles started flying off shelves faster than nearly anyone in the business could explain. Now, in September 2026, the San Diego-born brand is making its first significant pivot since that original launch — and it's betting that the flavor pairing that defined American childhoods can define its next chapter. Skrewball Whiskey announced the launch of Skrewball Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Flavored Whiskey, the brand's first move into flavor innovation since pioneering the peanut butter whiskey category in 2018.
The announcement landed with the kind of playful confidence that has always been the Skrewball calling card. This isn't a tentative dip into new territory — it's a full commitment to an idea that feels simultaneously absurd and completely inevitable. The PB&J sandwich is arguably the most universally recognized food combination in American culture, and Skrewball has now bottled it.
From Ocean Beach to a National Phenomenon: The Skrewball Story
To understand why this launch matters, you have to understand where Skrewball came from — and that story starts not in a boardroom, but behind a bar on the Pacific coast. The story of Skrewball begins in a rather unexpected place: a beach bar in Ocean Beach, California, created by a husband-and-wife team, Steven and Brittany Yeng, who wanted to craft a shot that combined two of their favorite things. That experiment — whiskey and peanut butter in the same glass — became a local phenomenon before Steven and Brittany ever imagined putting it in a bottle.
Steven Yeng's personal story adds a layer of depth to the brand that most spirits companies can only manufacture through marketing copy. The story of Skrewball Whiskey is more than just a tale of a successful drink. Steven's journey began far from the vibrant lights of San Diego, in a Thai refugee camp where he and his family sought shelter after escaping the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Born in Cambodia during the fallout of the Cambodian genocide, Yeng was dealt a difficult hand, made even more challenging when he contracted polio at the age of 1. Peanut butter, then, isn't just a flavor to him — it's a symbol. Peanut butter was a totally new and fascinating flavor for co-founder Steve after immigrating as a refugee from Cambodia.
He went on to develop a best-selling peanut butter whiskey cocktail at his bar and restaurant — a place as known for its foodie-friendly fare as it was for being a haven for local misfits, characters, and black sheep. He then teamed up with Brittany, his wife who just so happened to be a lawyer and chemist, to develop a standalone spirit that tasted great on its own and played well in a cocktail.
The early days were not glamorous. Steven and his wife were forced to self-fund the start of the brand, a challenge at the time that has more than paid off. "I mean, we pretty much went broke back in 2018. That winter, we had our gas shut off probably every other month and were upside down on our mortgage." That sacrifice produced one of the most remarkable brand trajectories in spirits history. Skrewball ascended swiftly to national stardom, clinching awards and hearts with its creamy, nutty allure, and beating the sales records of global brands like Jameson and Grey Goose along the way.
The brand's ascent attracted serious institutional attention. In March 2023, Pernod Ricard acquired a majority stake in Skrewball Whiskey. The acquisition gave the Yengs the distribution muscle of one of the world's largest spirits conglomerates while preserving the scrappy, irreverent identity that made the brand work in the first place. The new PB&J expression is the clearest signal yet of what the Pernod Ricard era of Skrewball looks like — bigger swings, sharper positioning, and a deliberate strategy to grow the brand beyond its single-expression roots.
What's Actually in the Bottle — and the Can
The Flavor Profile
Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey is a unique blend of smooth whiskey and rich, creamy peanut butter. Launched in 2018, this San Diego-born spirit offers a deliciously sweet and nutty flavor with hints of caramel and vanilla. The new PB&J expression builds on that established foundation rather than replacing it. This new expression takes classic Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey and blends it with strawberry flavoring, creating a ready-to-sip take on the familiar taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Rather than requiring peanut butter whiskey and a separate berry liqueur or mixer to create a PB&J-inspired drink, this release combines the peanut butter and strawberry flavors directly in the whiskey. That's a meaningful distinction for anyone who has tried to replicate the combination at home — the integration is done at the production level, which means the balance between the nutty base and the jammy fruit is built in, not improvised at the bar. The finish is described as sweet and lingering, with peanut butter, strawberry jelly, vanilla, and a lightly salty, nutty finish.
Both formats are bottled at 70 proof (35% ABV). It is also bottled at full 70-proof whiskey strength rather than being presented as a lower-ABV canned cocktail. That's a deliberate choice and a smart one. A lot of canned spirit products get watered down to RTD-level ABVs that make them feel like a compromise. Skrewball is keeping the PB&J at full strength, which means it can be consumed straight, over ice, or used as a legitimate mixing base without the drink feeling diluted before you've even added anything to it.
As a fair warning, it is on the sweeter side, so if you're more of a whiskey purist, it might not be for you. That caveat is honest and probably necessary. The PB&J expression is not trying to convert the neat-Scotch crowd. It's targeting the drinker who wants something fun, recognizable, and unapologetically flavored — and there are far more of those drinkers in America than the traditional whiskey world has historically wanted to acknowledge.
Format and Packaging: Built for the Road
The format decisions here are as telling as the flavor itself. Available in 100-ml cans and 50-ml bottles, Skrewball Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Flavored Whiskey delivers a format built for tailgates, concerts, camping trips and wherever the unexpected happens. These are not the standard 750ml bottle formats that dominate the industry's shelf-space battles. Skrewball is launching PB&J in exclusively portable, single-serve or near-single-serve packaging — which says everything about who the brand is courting and where it expects the product to be consumed.
The 100ml can carries a suggested retail price of $3.99 and contains two full-strength servings. The 50ml bottle is priced at $1.99. At those price points, the barrier to trial is essentially nothing. A consumer who has never picked up a Skrewball product can grab a 50ml mini for less than the cost of a gas station energy drink, and that impulse-buy accessibility is a serious advantage for a new flavor trying to establish itself. The $3.99 100ml can, with its two-serving yield, makes sharing frictionless — crack one open and split it, or drink both yourself at a tailgate and nobody's going to judge you.
The co-founders articulated the logic plainly. "Drinkers want big flavor, and we wanted to deliver it in a tiny can," said Steve and Brittany Yeng. "Throw it in your cooler or back pocket, crack one open with a friend, and enjoy the nostalgic combination." That's not marketing fluff — it's a clear-eyed reading of how Americans actually consume spirits at outdoor events, sporting events, and informal gatherings where a full bottle is impractical and a canned cocktail often feels too weak.
The Industry Context: Why Flavored Whiskey Is Where the Fight Is
A Market With Real Momentum
Skrewball's new launch isn't happening in a vacuum. The flavored whiskey category is one of the few corners of the spirits market generating consistent growth in an otherwise turbulent environment. The flavored whiskey market is forecast to expand from USD 39.35 billion in 2026 to USD 52.10 billion by 2031, registering a steady CAGR of 5.80%. This growth is primarily driven by younger and non-traditional drinkers who favor accessible flavor-forward variants. That demographic reality is something the industry has been slow to fully embrace, but the data keeps pointing in the same direction.
This growth is primarily driven by younger and non-traditional drinkers who favor accessible, flavor-forward variants over conventional whiskey rituals. The word "rituals" is key. Traditional whiskey culture is built around a set of learned behaviors — nosing, tasting, discussing grain bills and barrel char levels. Flavored whiskey collapses all of that. You don't need to know anything to enjoy a PB&J whiskey. You just need to remember being a kid.
Meanwhile, the broader American whiskey market is facing headwinds that make flavor innovation more strategically urgent for established brands. American whiskey revenue slipped 0.9% to $5.1 billion in 2025, with volume down 1% to 30 million cases. That's not a catastrophe, but it's a plateau that forces brands to either go premium — which takes years and significant investment — or find new consumer entry points through flavored innovation. Skrewball, already positioned in the flavored camp, is doubling down on the strategy that made it relevant in the first place.
Notably, the one segment of the spirits market that posted unambiguous growth in 2025 was ready-to-drink. Spirits-based RTDs and premixed cocktails were the one bright spot in an otherwise down 2025, reaching $3.8 billion, up 16.4%, per DISCUS. Skrewball's choice to launch PB&J exclusively in small, portable cans and mini bottles puts it squarely at the intersection of the RTD boom and the flavored whiskey trend — two of the strongest tailwinds in the category right now.
The Competitive Landscape
Skrewball's success in creating the peanut butter whiskey category attracted a wave of imitators, which is the most genuine form of flattery the spirits business offers. But the brand has maintained its position as the category originator, and that matters enormously in a space where consumer loyalty often flows to the name they heard first. The PB&J launch is a way of extending that originator status into an adjacent flavor territory before someone else gets there.
The growing consumer preference for unique and innovative flavor combinations in alcoholic beverages and rising interest in craft and premium spirits among millennials are the major factors driving the global flavored whiskey market. Skrewball doesn't have to work against that trend — it created it. The brand is essentially the proof of concept that the traditional spirits industry didn't believe in, now operating at scale inside one of the world's biggest drinks companies.
The PB&J as Cultural Artifact: Why This Flavor Resonates
There's a reason the brand's press materials lean heavily into the nostalgia angle, and it's not just because nostalgia is a safe marketing word. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich occupies a specific place in American memory that virtually no other food can claim. On average, American kids will consume 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches before they are 18. That's not a food preference — that's a formative experience, repeated enough times to become visceral.
Skrewball has been playing in this territory from the beginning. The brand's identity — misfits, black sheep, screwballs — is built around the idea that the things you're told are unsophisticated are often the things that bring the most genuine pleasure. Peanut butter whiskey was the prime example. A PB&J whiskey is the logical next step: take the flavor that already broke every rule in the spirits book and add the one ingredient that makes it even more recognizably, defiantly American.
Inspired by the iconic sandwich pairing loved by generations, Skrewball Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Flavored Whiskey gives the PB&J a grown-up upgrade. That framing — grown-up — is doing a lot of work. It's giving consumers permission to indulge something they associate with being a kid, while making clear that this is still a full-strength whiskey product, not a juice box. The tension between childlike flavor and adult occasion is exactly what makes the concept commercially compelling.
What the Brand's Leadership Is Saying
The official messaging from Skrewball's leadership makes clear that the PB&J launch isn't a one-off novelty — it's a signal of strategic direction. "The unexpected is what Skrewball does best, and this sets the stage for where our brand is heading next." That line from Steve and Brittany Yeng is the most forward-looking thing in the entire announcement, and it's worth sitting with. They're not saying this is a limited release or a seasonal experiment. They're saying this is a roadmap.
Richard Black, Managing Director of North American Distillers at Pernod Ricard, framed the launch in terms of the brand's core identity. "Skrewball has always challenged expectations around what whiskey can be, and PB&J is a natural expression of that spirit. By taking a flavor combination that consumers know and love and reimagining it through our signature peanut butter whiskey, we're continuing to push flavored whiskey in unexpected directions. The result is a playful, nostalgic take on a classic pairing that feels unmistakably Skrewball."
Black's language is notable for what it doesn't say. He doesn't talk about conquering the flavored whiskey category or defeating competitors. The framing is entirely about the consumer experience and the brand's internal logic — which is a sign of a brand that understands its own identity well enough not to overclaim. Skrewball's appeal has always been about attitude, and the attitude here is consistent: we do things that make people raise an eyebrow, and then we make them delicious enough that the eyebrow eventually comes down.
Cocktail Potential and Serving Occasions
While the portable format is the headline packaging story, the PB&J whiskey isn't locked into the tailgate occasion. It's bottled at 70 proof (about 35-percent ABV), which makes it perfect for sipping on its own or as a base for an expertly mixed cocktail. The full-strength ABV gives bartenders and home mixologists genuine flexibility — it behaves like whiskey in a drink, not like a liqueur that overwhelms everything around it.
The obvious application is a hard update on the classic PB&J cocktail that bartenders have been building for years using the original Skrewball alongside raspberry or strawberry components. Now the work is already done. Want a PB&J shot? That's just the whiskey, poured. Want something more elaborate? Mix it with a splash of cream, pour it over a graham cracker-rimmed glass, and you've got something that holds up against any dessert cocktail in a serious bar program.
It pairs beautifully with an actual PB&J. That might be the single most Skrewball sentence ever written, and it's not wrong. The brand has always had a sense of humor about itself, and the idea of sipping a PB&J whiskey alongside a PB&J sandwich is the kind of full-circle moment that makes sense in the brand's world.
What It Means for the Flavored Whiskey Category Going Forward
Skrewball's PB&J launch arrives at an inflection point for the flavored whiskey segment. Millennials are expanding their share of flavored whiskey purchases across on-premise and off-premise channels. That generational shift in purchasing power gives brands like Skrewball a growing structural advantage — the consumers who are most receptive to flavored innovation are also the ones entering their peak spending years.
The canned format choice signals something else important about where the industry is heading. Bars and restaurants in metropolitan clusters are reformulating classic cocktails with flavored whiskey bases, creating pull-through demand that drives volume commitments from distributors. But outside those urban centers, the consumption occasion for a product like Skrewball PB&J is inherently portable and social — camping, tailgating, outdoor concerts, backyard cookouts. The mini can format is perfectly engineered for those moments, and it creates a different kind of distribution opportunity than a standard 750ml bottle competes for.
The broader spirits market context reinforces why this kind of launch is strategically timed. What's capturing outsized attention is innovation that changes the actual consumer experience — flavor, format, or occasion. Skrewball's PB&J hits all three simultaneously: a new flavor built on an established base, packaged in a format designed for occasions where whiskey has historically struggled to compete with beer and hard seltzer. That three-vector approach is harder to pull off than it looks, and it puts the brand in an interesting competitive position heading into fall 2026.
The Bottom Line for Whiskey Drinkers
For the diehard whiskey traditionalist, Skrewball Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Flavored Whiskey is not going to be the bottle you reach for on a quiet night. It was never meant to be. This is a product designed for the cooler, the backpack, the pre-game — occasions where accessibility and fun matter more than complexity and contemplation. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
What makes this launch significant is not the flavor itself, as fun as it is. It's the signal it sends about where Skrewball, now backed by Pernod Ricard's global infrastructure, is heading. This is the brand's first move into flavor innovation since pioneering the peanut butter whiskey category in 2018. Eight years is a long time to sit on a single expression, and the decision to break that streak with something this bold and this culturally legible suggests a brand that is ready to move fast. The PB&J is not a finale — it's an opening act for a new chapter.
The Yengs built something genuinely improbable from a beach bar shot recipe and a lot of financial risk. Now, with Pernod Ricard's distribution network behind them and a flavor concept that every American already has a visceral relationship with, the PB&J launch has real commercial legs. Whether it becomes a permanent fixture in the Skrewball lineup or evolves into something else entirely, it's the clearest evidence yet that the brand has no intention of standing still.
