If you’re thinking Wheaties beer is not a child’s breakfast meal, you are right, although why anyone considering drinking beer for breakfast is beyond my scope of understanding.
But the beer is for real. Wheaties is partnering with a local craft brewery to create the limited edition beer. The 16-ounce can will only be available in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, starting on August 26, according to Wheaties’ parent company, General Mills.
The beer is called HefeWheaties and is the result of a collaboration between the two Minneapolis companies, General Mills and brewer Fulton Beer. The beer gets its name from hefeweizen, a German style of beer made with more than 50 percent malted wheat, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
It’s not exactly clear to me what makes the brew a Wheaties beer, other than it being made from wheat, because Wheaties is a mix of wheat and bran, and has not changed much since the brand was introduced in 1924.
“We’re not saying it’s a breakfast beer, but we’re not saying it’s not,” says Ryan Petz, the president of Fulton Brewery, the Minneapolis-based outfit that’s making the beer. Petz added that the beer is also a way to tie his company to the heritage of Minneapolis, the home of General Mills’ headquarters.
The development of the beer was left to Fulton Brewery, according to Mike Siemienas, a General Mills spokesman. He declined to say whether an athlete or celebrity would be chosen to endorse the product.
The move by Wheaties leaves some people to wonder if this is a last ditch effort to regain declining sales for the cereal. Last year, sales of Wheaties in the U.S. were $19.5 million, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. That’s down from $63.7 million in 2006.
Don’t get me wrong, because even I enjoy a cold beer on occasion, but I do wonder why General Mills is using a kid’s cereal to endorse an alcoholic beverage.
