6 Delicious Breakfast-Themed Beers

It's probably not wise to drink beer with breakfast, but if you are going to enjoy a delicious brew first thing in the morning, grab something appropriately themed. From coffee-flavored porters to cereal-inspired ales, here are six breakfast-themed beers to check out. 

1. TOASTER PASTRY INDIA-STYLE RED ALE // 21ST AMENDMENT

As a nod to its northern California brewery’s former life as a Kellogg’s factory churning out Pop Tarts, 21st Amendment created a red ale flavored with biscuit malts, intended to impart a buttery crust flavor. In spite of the biscuit malts and fruity notes, for those with unsophisticated palates (casual beer-drinkers of the world, unite), it doesn’t really taste like a Pop Tart. It is, however, still a delicious beer. And would go great with an actual Pop Tart. 

2. BOMB! // PRAIRIE ARTISAN ALES

There are plenty of coffee-infused beers out there—Rogue recently teamed up with Stumptown for a Cold Brew IPA, Goose Island creates a different Intelligentsia-powered stout annually (the last one also involved bourbon), and Sam Adams just came out with a Nitro Coffee Stout—but if you have to try just one, check out the Oklahoma-based Prairie Artisan Ales' Bomb!, an Imperial Stout that has a Beer Advocate rating of 99 (that’s out of 100) and was named Gear Patrol’s “hands-down favorite” coffee beer out of a field of 18. It’s aged with espresso beans, chocolate, vanilla, and ancho chiles.

3. CEREALIOUSLY FRENCH TOAST CRUNCH // BLACK BOTTLE BREWERY

The brewery comes out with different versions of its Cerealiously beers seasonally. The upcoming brew, launching this month, is a milk stout fermented with French Toast Crunch for a "roasty-sweet" flavor, according to the brewery. If French Toast Crunch doesn’t suit your palate, they brew a Count Chocula beer every October. And until April, they’re taking votes for which delicious cereal to brew with next.

4. VOODOO DOUGHNUT MANGO ASTRONAUT ALE // ROGUE

The Oregon-based brewers at Rogue Ales and Spirits teamed up with Portland’s most famous doughnut shop, Voodoo Donuts, to bring one of Voodoo’s quirky pastries, the Mango Tango, to life in draught form. While mangoes, doughnuts, and malt may seem like a lot of flavors to handle together, the ale pulls the combination off—as long as you’re down with your beer being on the sweet side.

5. D’OH NUT BEER // AGAINST THE GRAIN

Louisville, Kentucky’s Against the Grain Brewery paired up with the nearby Hi-Five Doughnuts to create a beer-doughnut mashup lace with brown sugar, vanilla glaze, and smoked vanilla. They describe it as a Root Beer Doughnut Rachbier. It’ll only be around for a limited run, so get yourself to Louisville now.

6. IMPERIAL DOUGHNUT BREAK // EVIL TWIN

Made by the Brooklyn/Copenhagen-based Evil Twin, the Imperial Doughnut Break is the result of taking a keg of the brewery’s Imperial Biscotti Break stout and adding whole doughnuts into the mix. The brew was so successful when it made a one-time appearance at an event that Evil Twin decided to bottle it for distribution.

AND MORE …

If you spot a breakfast beer, don’t hesitate! Most are only around for a limited time. Last summer, Wheaties teamed up with Minnesota’s Fulton Brewery to create HefeWheaties, a limited-edition Hefeweizen inspired by the iconic orange-boxed cereal and sold in the Minneapolis area. And though most brewers have stayed away from meat-flavored breakfast beers, Dogfish Head debuted the scrapple-flavored Beer for Breakfast at their Delaware brewpub in late 2014 (reviewers reported it tasted mostly like coffee). It's possible that there just wasn’t enough demand for pork mush beer to keep it year-round. 

All images courtesy the corresponding brewery unless otherwise noted