We’ve all had a breakfast beer before, but this is just getting silly.
For GABS 2024, Modus wanted to make a beer that captured the sweet fruitiness and fond memories of a certain popular breakfast cereal. That beer is Cereal for Dinner. Its label shows some colourful cereal box designs that bear no resemblance whatsoever to existing trademarked IP, just some original creations like Froop Hops, Beer Bubbles, and Loco Hops,* which all hint at the presence of cereal inside the beer itself.
Who am I kidding? Forget the hint. Modus didn’t stop at stuffing this beer with more hops and lactose than you can poke a breakfast spoon at; they went and dumped a bunch of sweet multi-coloured cereal rings in there as well. When I asked Modus’ marketing guy how much Seed-Bearing-Food Hoops went into the brew, he replied: “A trolley full of legally non-distinct artificially flavored fruited circles. The big packs.”
This oat cream NEIPA goes beyond hazy; given the context of the beer, I believe the word "milky" would be appropriate. There’s so much sweet fruit going on that I find it hard to keep up, though Modus tout Cereal For Dinner as tasting of “lemon, lime, orange and a hint of stonefruit”. Meanwhile, F Ls are supposedly lemon, lime and orange. (I looked it up.) As well as making me feel ripped off about the purple ones, this means Modus landed exactly where they wanted to land: in the middle of a sugary grain circle.
It’s probably been a good two decades since I’ve eaten that kind of cereal. But if you like fruity hoppy oat cream IPAs with a super creamy mouthfeel, you’re in the right place. As Junglebird Joe says: “Just like a milkshake IPA, only fruity!”
Mick Wüst
*Earlier this year, a certain CEO suggested that people struggling in the current economic climate could eat cereal for dinner. I find that worryingly close to the well-known response a French aristocrat gave when they heard the peasants had no bread: “Let them eat cake.”
Now, I don’t think anyone’s who’s stopped to think for half a second would say this beer would make for a cheap meal replacement, or could stand in as a responsible and nutritionally-balanced dinner. But when the modern-day aristocrats start saying: “Let them eat cereal for dinner,” the least we can do is mock them with a silly beer.
Published July 12, 2024 2024-07-12 00:00:00
