“Why do people enjoy this thing that I don’t enjoy? What’s wrong with them!?”
Probably a good 10% of threads & posts on message boards and Facebook.
Yeah, and I will never understand the popularity of those threads and posts!
I, and a lot of women I know, like Blue Moon. Is that it? Anything women prefer to what a man prefers is garbage?
Oh for fuck’s sake.
Edit: you know what, that’s not fair. It’s true that I’ve been secretly monitoring your beer preferences as well as that of all the women you know. When I saw Sheila drinking Blue Moon and entered that on my spreadsheet, that put the “Women like it” value juuuust high enough that it triggered my “Declare I don’t like it” algorithm.
I like it. Blue moon is tasty is light and summery tasting.
I like both Hoegaarden and Blue Moon. I like most beers. Exceptions are usually either quite extreme micro-brews* or watery mass market light beers. I like regular Bud, that’s probably my single most common beer purchase. But I buy a variety of other stuff if I feel like it. Price has some impact, like I’m gradually working through a 24 pack of Blue Moon that was quite cheap at the Costco-affiliated liquor store, but it’s not a huge impact.
I don’t swear I could tell the difference blindfolded between fairly similar beers I think are a little different.
In general some people might be ‘pretentious’ in their beer and other consumer purchase choices, but some other people are definitely too worried about who else is ‘pretentious’.
*I recently tried a micro-brew rye beer from a local store with big selection, a four pack, drank one bottle and threw out the other three. I wasn’t even going to offer it to anyone else. But that’s rare for me.
I’m the OP and I find it extra funny that I’m getting ads for Blue Moon on Instagram today. I know it’s a summer Saturday and thus beer ads will dominate, I don’t think Instagram is tracking the SDMB, however.
I like Blue Moon. It and Killian’s were my two go to beers in college and Coors use to combine the two of them in what they called a harvest moon that was also quite tasty. I haven’t had one in several years but I wouldn’t turn one down. I also love most New Belgium beers and Fat Tire was my first beer love though it was better before they started distributing with Coors.
Hell, I even like the occasional Leinenkugel sumer shandy. I’ve fathered children, I’ve cut down trees, and I’ve built things - as such I’m sufficiently confident in my masculinity that I don’t have to pose by pretending double IPAs and like bitter dregs are pleasurable to drink.
I’m a homebrewer. Most American hops to my taste buds are described as “catty” or “skunked.” Therefore, 90% of American micro-brews to me range from “I can drink it if it’s really cold” to “nasty”. American IPA’s almost all fall into this category for me.
English flavoring hops, especially East Kent Goldings, I like. Tettnanger and Northern Brewer are also good. In fact, I’m growing EKG, N Brewer and Tettanger, and should be ready to make some fresh hop harvest ales in about a month. Since I brew my own, I’ve made some serious hop bomb ales with the hops I like, and I find them mighty tasty. But if you load up with Cascade or the new American varietals, it just tastes skunked to me.
Anyhoo, I find Blue Moon pretty mediocre but not offensive. I keep it stocked for my wife, and every once in a blue moon when I’m out of my preference I will have one. Hoegaarden is far superior to my palate. Not a big fan of Fat Tire either, and have never done a blind taste off between the two, but I’m guessing I would prefer Fat Tire.
Anchor Steam, which I first had in 1980, remains my benchmark microbrew (at least in the Fritz Maytag days, and microbrew might not be the right description). Not saying Anchor Steam is the best beer out there, but a beer won’t get on my radar unless it can hold up against an Anchor Steam. YMMV.
My gf likes a Blue Moon on occasion, I usually eat her orange. She likes wheat beers. I like really nasty NE style hazy IPAs, the bitterer the better. I also like sour beers that make you choke.
I like Blue Moon fine. But I like most beers.
I used to enjoy a nice IPA until the brewers started out hopping each other. Sheeesss. You think that’s a hoppy beer, wait until you try THIS! It’s so good you can’t drink it!
Heh. Was at an airport bar with my Wife once and after a few beers, decided to try something different. Got an Angry Orchard. Thought it was a beer, not a cider. Didn’t know anything about it (it was new at the time). Now that was a surprise, and not in a good way.
I’ve never thought of IPAs and the such as “manly” beers. When I think “manly” beer, I think Old Style, Schlitz, Coors, you know, that rugged, American, blue-collar drink, not the namby pamby stuff hipsters quaff.
(I drink it all. My main quasi-daily drinker is either Old Style or whatever Polish lager is on sale [Zywiec, Okocim, Tyskie, Łomza, etc.] I don’t find it all that difficult to find non-APAs and non-IPAs at stores and bars. They still do take up the majority of taps in most places, but I don’t have trouble finding alternatives if I’m not in an APA/IPA mood. I feel we reached peak hops about five or six years ago, if not longer ago. Sours have been the trend the last three or four years, but they’ve gotten into the “sour wars” as well, so much so that I actually do find some sours undrinkable. I loved the style when all you could do is get three or four sours at the beer store, and they were all from Belgium. Some of them were funky sour and real over-the-top, but the American sours have gone way beyond something like a Hannsens Oude Gueuze–my sour of choice fifteen years ago – or an elegant Cantillon.)
IPAs, at least where they range into the race to the hops is similar to the ghost peppers and hotter macho stuff. But overall, most IPA drinkers are that oddish subset.
I’ll drink it if somebody’s buying. But that goes for pretty much *any *beer.
Yup. My favorite beer for a long time was a local IPA that was really floral. It was a great contrast to a really gooey slice of pizza. I’m not real pleased with the idea among brewers that their IPA is their place to show off exactly how bitter they can make something.
Wheat beers are a mixed bag IMO. Widmer’s Hefeweizen was my gateway beer. It’s not sold around here, but on the rare occasions I can get one it takes me straight back to my college days. Other American wheats I’ve had can be pretty tasty. Belgian wheats ain’t my bag, though.
Oddly enough, what really got me seriously into beer was tasting my first Imperial IPA c. 2004 or 2005. I mean, I was into beer then, but my cousin ordered a bottle of Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught just because it was the priciest beer at the bar. I thought he was nuts, but that first smell of the mix of citrus and floral hops was just intoxicating. I had no idea beer could be like this. Never has the smell of beer enticed me like that. And the flavor: boozy, but balanced, sweet and bitter and citrussy. It was just delicious. One of those turning point moments of culinary experiences and a moment I clearly remember to this day.
I’ve honestly never had a Dreadnaught as good as that first one–perhaps it was the originality of the experience that had a lot to do with it – I simply had no reference point for that style of beer, and that first taste was like tasting the best beer ever made for me.
Now what surprises me, is I was just in a liquor store the Blue Moon was $9.99 for a six pack, more then many more premium beers. Same store had Bass & Smithwicks for $8.99.
I like it.