Beer and...Cereal

Somewhere along the way I got it into my head, likely around the time of my beer and cookie pairing experiments that I wanted to try my hand at pairing beer with cereal. I'm not talking about using beer instead of milk to pour on a bowl of cereal but munching on the cereal dry, snack mix style.

I generally don't buy much cereal so as I thought through how this would work I decided that those packages containing 10 or 12 mini boxes of cereal would be perfect. After some searching I determined that they must not make them anymore however I was able to find the single serving plastic bowls, the kind where you just tear off the top and can pour the milk right in. I picked up six and my initial plan was to do all of them at once. They've been on my shelf for a month so getting impatient, I grabbed a couple

One of the two - Frosted Flakes - has been around as long as I can remember while the other - Krave - was something I hadn't heard of until I picked it up. Without any sort of plan for the Frosted Flakes I somewhat randomly pulled it out when Mag had a bottle of Ballast Point Fathom opened. The style - India Pale Lager - isn't one I've had a ton of experience with. The aroma was that of honey, the flavor a little less so but came across as sweeter than most lagers and without the aftertaste I associate (perhaps incorrectly) with lagers. Drinking the beer between bites of the dry cereal Mag commented, "It shouldn't be good but it is." I agreed and was pleased that this latest experiment was off to a good start.

Krave - for those who aren't familiar with it - contains squares that are similar to graham crackers and filled with chocolate. This one I had a hint of what might work - something along the lines of a stout - so when a bottle of Breakside's Alan From the Wood was opened I dove into the second pairing. This one worked as I had hoped with the graham cracker part keeping the pairing from going into sweet overload. Next I opened a bottle of Founder's KBS, "an ale brewed with chocolate and coffee aged in oak bourbon barrels," and found, not surprisingly, that it also went well with Krave.

After two successful pairings I'm looking forward to the next four cereals I picked up - Special K, Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Apple Jacks. Two at a time seems easily doable so check back for a couple more installments of this silliness.