Let your inner six-year-old rejoice: From the astounding popularity of Milk Bar chain’s cereal milk-flavored fro-yo, shakes, cream soda and cookies to the ever-growing number of actual restaurants that serve nothing but bowls of cereal, Saturday mornings are back, baby. Get your portion of a balanced breakfast with these six beers made with and designed to taste like breakfast cereal. It is the most important meal of the day, after all.
Somerville Saturday Morning
People freaked when Massachusetts-based Somerville launched this Belgian tripel with Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries in March, and it’s easy to see why: The nostalgia is real. Crunch Berries pop in the aroma, a sugar-dusted fruitiness that floats above the base bouquet of dried banana, pear, circus peanuts and corn flakes in a bowl of almond milk. Sips are slightly more fruit-forward, with rich pear and regular old Cap’n up top; alcoholic warmth enhances the toasted almond notes at the swallow. And it doesn’t even scratch the roof of your mouth.
Brew Rebellion Saturday Morning Cartoons
Is there a more delightful substance on this earth than the pool of unicorn-colored milk left over after you’ve finished a bowl of fruit-flavored cereal? Brew Rebellion’s 5.8% milk stout made with Fruity Pebbles captures this flavor perfectly, pairing it with soft, smoky cocoa, cola and toast. Head brewer Andy Sutfin rotates the cereal used in the stout regularly; previous batches have incorporated Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Apple Jacks and Cocoa Pebbles. And lest you forget which one you’re drinking, each bottle is dipped in wax and pasted with actual pieces of cereal.
Black Bottle Cerealiously
In 2014, Black Bottle pissed off just about every kid in Fort Collins when it bought out the entire Count Chocula supply from several of the town’s grocery stores in order to make this 6.4% ABV milk stout. The brewery’s since struck up an informal relationship with General Mills that helps avoid such dilemmas; the cereal maker occasionally sends Black Bottle the hundreds of pounds of cereal needed for a week of steeping in the beer. More than a dozen different cereals have gone into Cerealiously, including Lucky Charms, Golden Grahams, Reese’s Puffs and Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch.
Big Time Breakfast Cereal Killer
That name is pretty accurate: Not only do Big Time’s brewers throw every cereal grain they can find into imperial stout; they also mash in with a mixture of Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Cocoa Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Steeping with coffee and cocoa nibs makes the beer even more coocoo. It’ll be available at Big Time’s Seattle brewpub on draft and in hand-filled bottles this fall.
Ballast Point Victory at Cereal
Each December, San Diego-based Ballast Point observes Victory at Sea Day—a celebration of its beloved imperial porter made with vanilla beans and cold-brew coffee, Victory at Sea—by releasing various treatments of the beer. The years have seen versions made with pumpkin spice, gingerbread, peppermint, coconut and even ghost peppers. But none (at least to our palates) has been better than Victory At Cereal, made by dry-hopping the beer with Cap’n Crunch. The cereal infuses the flavor with sugary, bready notes that fuse with whole milk, coffee, toast, cocoa and french vanilla—and it even has that Cap’n Crunch film that coats your tongue.
Noble Rey Baracus Gets Super Cereal
There’s no telling which cereal you might experience during a visit to Noble Rey’s Dallas taproom; throughout the year, the brewery releases small batches of its American brown ale, Baracus, spiked with a rotating selection of breakfast boxes from Count Chocula to Reese’s Puffs. Also keep an eye out for Cereal Killa, a witbier dry-hopped with Fruity Pebbles, if you need a second helping.
The Saturday Morning beer is brewed by Slumbrew Brewery from Somerville, MA. It’s not Somerville brewery.