Blue Moon is doing some things right. Its sort of a shame it is brewed and owned by Miller Coors Brewing (Don't believe me - check out this site and see there selection - did you know they were all owned by MillerCoors - did you even know MillerCoors were merged? YEP!). In visiting the Blue Moon website above I really saw no trace of Coors or Miller in the site. I know that it is brewed at Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. I know this because I've toured the plant 3 times. I actually really enjoy to tour the brewery. It is quite fascinating and in a really great little town in Colorado.
That aside, Blue Moon is doing some great things with their beers. I love the artistic advertising thing they are doing with the beer as well. Just a few years back at the Arts Festival in Pittsburgh you could actually take a few minutes to add your artistic ability and input into a full length mural of their beer. It was really a great idea and sort of a living painting as probably 100's of people were involved in that one picture. Not to mention others in other cities! It was brilliant. Because it really did catch my attention. I think that is when I started noticing the different brews that Blue Moon started brewing. My wife became a quick fan of their Full Moon (which I'm not sure they make any more - or at least we can't seem to find). And really that started us trying a few others.
Pale Moon is Blue Moon's version of a Belgium Pale Ale. Now, in general I think the term of Pale Ale preceded by anything is really a little loose. There is IPA, DIPA, APA, D(enver)PA,BPA, ect, so therefore the uniqueness of each I believe comes with the uniqueness of the local ingredients that the product is brewed. That said, this is a "Belgian" Pale Ale brewed in Golden Colorado. No doubt the ingredients are authentic and of decent quality. And the attention to detail is definitely reviewed in this beer. Research and QA dollars on this beer are well spent. It actually is a really enjoyable beer. It isn't great. It isn't outstanding... but it is a nice quality beer. It has the nice sweet malty characteristic of a Belgian Beer with a nice mellow yet adequate hop quantity to solidify the Pale Ale aspect of the beer. There is a burnt caramel kick to it which is sort of decent. It isn't overly hopped for the local/regular beer drinker to turn their nose at. It is nice and mellow. In general, the body of the beer was a nice medium body and handled the beer nice. The head retention was definitely not the best. Maybe it was my glass... maybe it was the beer. Sometimes hard to determine. The had a nice bronze color to the pour. Over all, I thought it was nice.
The unfortunate thing is this is just another one of the "BIG NAMES" breaking into market share of the little guys. I say this is unfortunate because it makes it tough for the "little guy". The beer industry and microbrewery seems to me to be some what of a saturating industry. I've been doing some reading and it seems like there are breweries opening all over the place all the time. I haven't read the statistics on breweries closing but I assume it is closely linked to the number opening. It seems like right now it is the thing to do. God speed to everyone opening breweries and if you need some help in the Pittsburgh Area - I'd love to start learning the industry side of the business. Sorry, I digress, the unfortunate part of this is that MillerCoors brews this beer and makes it "look/seem/sound/act" like many micro brewed type styles/beers out there. Taking shelf space (cause they can afford to) from the smaller guys just trying to make a living. I'm not here to say they need to go; I just think that it is slightly misleading if people don't know/see that it is coming from MillerCoors. I mean some people that may have tried/drank this beer would have NEVER drank it if they knew a relation. Not that that is good either - but branding is a big part of this business. And this one is very misleading. Its good... just know what you are drinking and who you are giving your money to with this one. I don't always know this with everything I'm buying and I wish I did. Thanks for listening.
That aside, Blue Moon is doing some great things with their beers. I love the artistic advertising thing they are doing with the beer as well. Just a few years back at the Arts Festival in Pittsburgh you could actually take a few minutes to add your artistic ability and input into a full length mural of their beer. It was really a great idea and sort of a living painting as probably 100's of people were involved in that one picture. Not to mention others in other cities! It was brilliant. Because it really did catch my attention. I think that is when I started noticing the different brews that Blue Moon started brewing. My wife became a quick fan of their Full Moon (which I'm not sure they make any more - or at least we can't seem to find). And really that started us trying a few others.
Pale Moon is Blue Moon's version of a Belgium Pale Ale. Now, in general I think the term of Pale Ale preceded by anything is really a little loose. There is IPA, DIPA, APA, D(enver)PA,BPA, ect, so therefore the uniqueness of each I believe comes with the uniqueness of the local ingredients that the product is brewed. That said, this is a "Belgian" Pale Ale brewed in Golden Colorado. No doubt the ingredients are authentic and of decent quality. And the attention to detail is definitely reviewed in this beer. Research and QA dollars on this beer are well spent. It actually is a really enjoyable beer. It isn't great. It isn't outstanding... but it is a nice quality beer. It has the nice sweet malty characteristic of a Belgian Beer with a nice mellow yet adequate hop quantity to solidify the Pale Ale aspect of the beer. There is a burnt caramel kick to it which is sort of decent. It isn't overly hopped for the local/regular beer drinker to turn their nose at. It is nice and mellow. In general, the body of the beer was a nice medium body and handled the beer nice. The head retention was definitely not the best. Maybe it was my glass... maybe it was the beer. Sometimes hard to determine. The had a nice bronze color to the pour. Over all, I thought it was nice.
The unfortunate thing is this is just another one of the "BIG NAMES" breaking into market share of the little guys. I say this is unfortunate because it makes it tough for the "little guy". The beer industry and microbrewery seems to me to be some what of a saturating industry. I've been doing some reading and it seems like there are breweries opening all over the place all the time. I haven't read the statistics on breweries closing but I assume it is closely linked to the number opening. It seems like right now it is the thing to do. God speed to everyone opening breweries and if you need some help in the Pittsburgh Area - I'd love to start learning the industry side of the business. Sorry, I digress, the unfortunate part of this is that MillerCoors brews this beer and makes it "look/seem/sound/act" like many micro brewed type styles/beers out there. Taking shelf space (cause they can afford to) from the smaller guys just trying to make a living. I'm not here to say they need to go; I just think that it is slightly misleading if people don't know/see that it is coming from MillerCoors. I mean some people that may have tried/drank this beer would have NEVER drank it if they knew a relation. Not that that is good either - but branding is a big part of this business. And this one is very misleading. Its good... just know what you are drinking and who you are giving your money to with this one. I don't always know this with everything I'm buying and I wish I did. Thanks for listening.
