Is there a beer-drinker anywhere who has not, at some point, pounded down a cold one before noon and burped, “Beer. Breakfast of champions”?
Probably there is, beer having been turned into a kind of sacramental beverage by the craft-brewing movement. But still, the news that General Mills Co. is collaborating on a Wheaties-based beer seems like an unfortunate progression.
Beer requires fermented grain. Usually it’s malted barley, corn or rice, but sometimes it’s malted wheat and the result is a Hefeweizen (German for yeastwheat). Wheaties has wheat. Inevitably a craft brewer was going to go there.
It was the Fulton Brewery, (“Ordinary guys brewing extraordinary beer”) of Minneapolis that convinced General Mills to let it brew up some “Hefe-Wheaties.” Available only in the Twin Cities beginning Aug. 26 in four-packs of 16-ounce cans.
For General Mills, it’s a no-lose proposition. Sales of Wheaties have been in decline for a decade. These days Americans prefer cereals with lots more added sugar, so much so that Wheaties packages now suggest that you “Refuel with Wheaties and Chocolate Milk.”
So why not just pour your beer onto a bowl of Wheaties and be done with it? As singer Kris Kristofferson put it, “And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert.”