Yeah, $9.99 is pretty much standard craft beer pricing around here. That seems about two bucks too much for something like Blue Moon to me. But, hey, if that price point sells, who am I to say anything.
My husband likes it, but he doesn’t want the orange slice in it.
Technically, it was always owned by MillerCoors.
Blue Moon was created by a man named Keith Villa, a brewer at The Sandlot, a MillerCoors-owned brewhouse inside Coors Field that opened in 1995. Mr. Villa and the other three guys that work there create and produce mostly one-off beers for consumption in the stadium.
Around that time MillerCoors was looking to break into the craft beer sector, so they essentially “called up” one of these guys’ beers to the big leagues; at the time the beer they chose was called “Bellyslide Belgian White,” but they changed the name to Blue Moon and created the “Blue Moon Brewing Company” and never placed any MillerCoors branding on the bottles, cans, or packaging, creating the illusion that this was a small independent brewery. They went to all of that effort, but they were found out almost immediately.
Despite the fact that everybody knows, for some reason they still maintain the fake “we’re a craft brewery” story.
Dale (OP), what is to understand? What a person likes in beers is a personal choice/preference.Does it confuse you that some people like the Grateful Dead and some people loath them? Or some people Like Chevrolet’s but hate Fords?
There should be no confusion about personal likes and dislikes…If everybody like the same thing this would be a VERY fucking boring world.
Me…I run the gamut on beers with the exception of very sour sours. Give me a double Hop Loaded IPA any day…but I can also quaff down an Imperial Stout or blue moon too!
You mention “MillerCoors” over & over, but you must know that there was no such company back in 1995 when Blue Moon was first brewed, right?
I think it’s popular because witbear / wheat beer is fairly palatable to non-beer drinkers and beer drinkers alike. It often has more flavor and less aftertaste than a lager, and it’s less bitter than IPAs. It’s not going to put you on your ass like an imperial stout. I don’t think it’s necessarily that Blue Moon per se is a great beer, but when you put Blue Moon up against Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Tecate, and 9% IPA or Stout that’s going to make it difficult to walk, much less safe to drive, Blue Moon wins.
I’m aware. But that’s what the company is now. Whatever it was called, the point is, Blue Moon was never an independent craft brewery, they were always owned by one of the “big guys.”
IMO, Blue Moon is kind of in the beer uncanny valley. What I mean by that is that it’s noticeably more flavorful than most large-manufacturer light lagers, but it’s still a large-manufacturer product. So it’s kind of neither fish nor fowl, in the sense that it’s a great product for one of the mega-brewers- flavorful, within the accepted style, etc…
But as far as the vast run of Belgian witbiers go, it’s a mediocre at best rendition of the style. Take a Blue Moon and compare it with say… Hoegaarden, Celis White, Ommegang Wittel or Harpoon UFO, and the differences are obvious.
Personally I haven’t figured out where it fits into my beer drinking world- if I’m wanting refreshing, I’ll probably go for a different wit or a light lager of some kind. If I’m wanting flavorful, it’s probably a pale ale/IPA or maybe a good Bohemian Pilsner.
I adore Blue Moon and I’ll venture to say I’ve consumed more beer than most anyone on this board.
Yes.
I’ll accept that challenge.
Sixtels at dawn.
This is my experience also, and quality control recently seems poorer. Lately, most batches I’ve tried have been very high on the soapy/cilantro taste.
I’ll drink you both under the table. Not proud. Just sayin’. 
Heh, I’d be under that table voluntarily. You cannot fall down if you never stand up.
I wonder if it’s an age thing? Having performed a sort of beer experiment by having Pilsner Urquell in Prague, Budapest, Vienna and London over the course of a two week period, it was very clear that the further I got from the Czech Republic, the more that presumably age-related changes affected the beer. In short, super-fresh, the beer was well-balanced, without sharp bitterness and a lot of maltiness. The further from Prague I got, the less malty, and the more sharply bitter it tasted.
I wonder if the Blue Moon differences are due to proximity or lack thereof to a Miller brewery?
Blue Moon’s only made in the MillerCoors breweries in Golden, CO and Elkton, VA.
https://www.millercoorsblog.com/features/quick-look-our-8-breweries-yes-8
It’s amusing when kittens tussle. 
M-O-O-N, that spells “Beer”! Laws yes!
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
I like it well enough. I was stationed in Germany long before craft breweries became a thing. I was there less than a day before I had my first Hefeweizen. A wheat beer is a bit nostalgic for me and I greatly prefer them to IPAs. It’s not the best example of a wheat beer but it will do.
If you want to taste a truly vile beer, pick up a bottle of Shock Top Lemon Shandy :vomit:
It tastes like someone emptied a can of Lemon Pledge into the nastiest cheap beer they could find…
…either that or lemon flavored urine…
I’m not a huge fan of beer, but I’d drink a can of skunky generic store brand beer before that vile brew ever touches my lips
The hefeweizens are a little different than the Belgian wits (whites). They both have wheat in the mash, but the Belgians are typically spiced with Curacao orange peels and coriander seed. Also, the yeast used is a bit different. The German wheats have a banana-y type of yeast (the first time I had a hefeweizen, I swore up and down it was flavored with bananas, but, nope, that was the yeast). The Belgian whites yeastiness is more towards tart fruit and spice, but I don’t get that banana taste from it. I dare say that wit beers tend to have a bit of a “hot dog water” taste to them, I think from the coriander that is usually used in them.