The beer is aptly named “Saturday Morning” as a tribute to “everybody’s favorite Saturday morning cereal” and to local beer aficionado, Mike Johnson, who first brewed the beer in 2000.
Saturday Morning Belgian ale is just over 9% ABV and will be released to the public at the end of this month where it will be served in the brewery’s taproom in 11-ounce pours.
Production process
The production process was “pretty straightforward,” Somerville Brewing co-founder Caitlin Jewell told BeverageDaily.
The brewing process started with a base recipe similar to the company’s Trekker Trippel beer and added the Cap’n Crunch Berries cereal during the mash-in stage.
“We also added a good amount of flaked corn to the mash in order to add smoothness to the body and further emphasize the cereal-like overtones,” Jewell said.
“In terms of the brewing process, the crunch berries are just one more grain and sugar source for the wort.”
‘Still developing flavor’
The craft beer industry is no stranger to flavor innovation: many others have borrowed from breakfast food favorites to come up with new beer recipes.
Stouts, for example, have been used as a cereal beer base in multiple brew concoctions such as Black Bottle Brewery’s Count Chocula milk stout or Big Time Brewing Company’s Breakfast Cereal Killer Stout.
However, for Somerville Brewing, a lighter beer was a more natural flavor choice to pair with the fruity cereal.
“Captain Crunch is a light oat, wheat and corn cereal so we never considered going darker,” Jewell said.
The flavor profile of the beer can be described as a richer-bodied tripel beer with traditional aromatic notes of bubble gum, stone fruit, and spice that comes across as Cap’n Crunch Berries cereal along with a lingering cereal flavor from the corn addition, according to Somerville Brewing.
“The flavor profile of the beer is still developing,” she added.
Somerville Brewing has future plans to can the beer and release it in limited amounts through its distributor Mass Bev Alliance.