Post Consumer Brands partnered with Lakeville Brewing Company on Honey Bunches of Blonde, a blonde ale meant to echo the cereal’s honey-roasted flavor, on tap now at the Lakeville, Minnesota taproom through mid-September. Cereal-brand tie-ins are a genuinely odd corner of craft beer marketing this year; if you’d rather stick to beers that don’t taste like breakfast, our best American beers guide is the safer bet.
Food-brand and beer crossovers have been a recurring, slightly odd corner of the industry for years, from candy-inspired stouts to fast-food tie-ins, but a cereal collaboration is a newer wrinkle. Post Consumer Brands partnering directly with a regional craft brewery, rather than licensing its name to a big national producer, follows a pattern where established food and drink brands lean on small breweries for credibility and buzz rather than the reverse.
Blonde ale itself is one of the more approachable, least polarizing styles out there: a pale, light-to-medium bodied ale with subtle malt sweetness, low bitterness and minimal hop character, closer in drinkability to a lager than to anything hop-forward. That neutral base is exactly why it works as a flavor canvas here; adding honey and leaning into the toasted-oat character of the cereal doesn’t have to fight against a strong existing hop or malt profile the way it might in an IPA or a stout.
Lakeville Brewing Company, the Minnesota brewery behind the collaboration, gets access to a recognizable national food brand’s marketing reach in exchange, a trade that can meaningfully boost taproom traffic for a regional operator that would otherwise rely entirely on local word of mouth. It’s a similar logic to Shiner’s musician collaboration or Dogfish Head’s magazine tie-in: a small or mid-size brewery borrowing visibility from a partner with a bigger built-in audience.
Whether this specific beer is worth seeking out really comes down to how literally you want your beer to taste like breakfast cereal. If that’s not your thing, the honey-and-oat flavor direction is still a legitimate one within the blonde ale style even without the cereal branding; our best American beers guide covers plenty of other approachable options in the same easy-drinking lane.
It’s also worth noting this kind of tie-in tends to have a short shelf life by design; food-brand collaborations like this are usually built around a single limited run rather than becoming a permanent SKU, since the whole point is generating short-term buzz and taproom traffic rather than establishing a long-term product line. If you want to try it, the mid-September window is a real deadline, not a soft estimate.
Marketing tie-ins like this tend to perform best when the base beer style is genuinely well-suited to the flavor concept rather than forced, which is arguably why a honey-and-oat blonde ale works better for a cereal collaboration than, say, a hoppy IPA would have.
Regional food and beverage tie-ins like this one tend to work best commercially when they’re treated as an event rather than a permanent product change, generating social media buzz and taproom visits during a defined window rather than trying to compete long-term on grocery store shelves against a brewery’s established core beers.
It also raises the question of who this beer is actually for: craft beer diehards chasing something new to try, nostalgic cereal fans curious what the flavor tie-in tastes like in beer form, or simply Lakeville Brewing regulars who’ll try whatever seasonal is on tap that month regardless of the branding behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a blonde ale?
A pale, light-to-medium bodied ale with subtle malt sweetness, low bitterness and minimal hop aroma, generally the most approachable and least polarizing style in a brewery’s core lineup.
Is Honey Bunches of Blonde available outside Minnesota?
Right now it’s only available on tap at Lakeville Brewing Company’s Minnesota taproom, running through mid-September, with no announced wider distribution.
What other cereal-inspired beers have been made?
Cereal and breakfast-food tie-ins are a recurring, if niche, trend in craft beer marketing, usually built around blonde ales, milk stouts or fruited sours where the cereal’s flavor can actually come through.
Does it actually taste sweet like the cereal?
It’s designed to echo the honey-roasted flavor of the cereal within a blonde ale’s naturally mild sweetness, so expect a noticeably honeyed beer rather than a literal bowl-of-cereal flavor bomb.
Are there other cereal or snack-brand beer collaborations planned?
None have been announced beyond this specific Post Consumer Brands and Lakeville Brewing partnership, though the format (a limited regional taproom-only release) suggests it’s an easy template other food brands could copy if this one performs well.
Are there other food brands considering craft beer tie-ins?
None have been publicly announced beyond this Post Consumer Brands partnership, though the format has proven simple enough (a small brewery, a limited taproom run) that other snack or cereal brands could plausibly try something similar.
Source: Post Consumer Brands →
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We tasted Honey Bunches of Blonde ourselves: read our full review of Honey Bunches of Blonde, and see how it stacks up in our picks for the best summer beers.
