Black Bottle Brewery brings back chocolate cereal beer

Alec Erickson
October 15, 2017

Video by Alec Erickson

Wine and cheese. Soda and pizza. These are classic combinations. But beer and cereal?

Boxes of Count Chocula cereal are piled up next to Black Bottle Brewery's kegs in their brew house. — The Cerealiously beer from Black Bottle is made using Count Chocula to add a more chocolate flavor to the beer (Alec Erickson | Collegian)

It sounds like an unconventional pairing, even for craft beer. But for Black Bottle Brewery, this is just one way to alter the way we think about beer.

For the last few years, Black Bottle has had a line of beer made with cereal that they call Cerealiously. This year, the beer has a Halloween twist, being made using Count Chocula cereal.

A tasting glass filled with beer sits on top of a keg in a brew house. — Black Bottle Brewery’s line of cereal beer, often introduces new types of cereal to beer. This year the brewery decided to revisit Count Chocula. (Alec Erickson | Collegian)

Around three years ago, founder of Black Bottle Brewing, Sean Nook, came up with the idea of creating a cereal beer.

“I thought it was a silly idea putting cereal in a beer” said head brewer Tom Moseman. “It tasted pretty good, so I was on board after that.”

The first run of the Cerealiously beer was made using Honey Bunches of Oates. Since that initial combination, Black Bottle has experimented with different cereals each year, including Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Reese’s Puff. Two years ago, the brewery initially used Count Chocula for the Halloween release.

What really stands out about the Count Chocula Cerealiously beer is the distinct chocolate flavor. The beer itself is a milk stout, which is a darker beer but not too strong.

“We figured milk and cereal first, and pretty much every cereal we use goes well with a dark beer,” Moseman said.

A man reaches into a fermenter to add a bag full of cereal. — Black Bottle Brewery’s Head Brewer Tom Moseman adds nylon bags of cereal to the fermenter to make the Cerealiously beer. (Alec Erickson | Collegian)

The beer is brewed with some extra chocolate malts to bring out the flavor a bit more. To make the beer, it requires a lot of cereal during the fermentation process. Black Bottle usually goes through 48 boxes of cereal for a batch, which is equivalent to about 35 pounds. The cereal is poured into nylon bags which are then added to the fermenter. The process has pretty much always been the same, according to Moseman.

General Mills took notice of the cereal style beer, and even sent Black Bottle one of their prototype cereals, Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch a few years ago. Moseman said a lot of the recognition for the beer comes from when they cleaned out a local Albertson’s for Count Chocula.

Maybe cereal and beer isn’t unconventional at all. You be the judge. Cerealiously Count Chocula will be on tap at Black Bottle starting on Wednesday, Oct. 18.

Location: 1611 S College Ave.

Collegian Reporter Alec Erickson can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on twitter @CTV_Ace.