I’ll confess right away: I’m a sucker for a pretty beer label. An old friend once said about the painted-glass label on a bottle of Simpatico beer: Now that’s marketing! He owned a liquor store, you see, so he knew well the value of marketing in inducing the consumer to part with their hard-earned dough. Marketing, though, is an effective tool, and it works on me with an eye-catching label and sometimes, an interesting theme. As I was browsing the wares of Craftshack.com, Artisanal Brew Works Touch O' Crunch-Now with Even More Crunch jumped out at me. The label and name are meant to emulate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal (the beer is brewed with it), and since I love cinnamon, I added a can to my cart.

Artisanal Brew Works says about the beer:

Artisanal Brew Works Touch O' Crunch-Now with Even More Crunch has an alcohol content of 7.4% by volume and I paid $2.78 for my can from Craftshack after using a Rewards Points discount code. The brewery sells it for $16 a 4-pack of pint cans. Total Wine sells it for $20.49 a 4-pack, though not in Georgia. My can has no freshness dating, though it is stamped BATCH#2770 on the bottom.

Artisanal Brew Works Touch O' Crunch-Now with Even More Crunch pours to a murky red color with a thick fluffy white head and a nose of hot ball cinnamon. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body and pops with red ale stewed malts and berry fruit. There’s creamy lactose (the milk in your bowl) and in your face cinnamon, but I don’t get the toasty cereal notes that would suggest the theme.

A cloying sweetness makes this a miss for me, too, and all in all though it was interesting to try, it’s not a beer that I would buy again.