While making the film, I was surprised that many of the brands on supermarket and grocery store shelves that appear to be made by small craft brewers actually come from BudMillerCoors. OK, I wasn’t really surprised because I knew how things worked having been in the beer business but the proliferation of “craft style beers” was staggering. How is a consumer supposed to know what’s a “real” craft beer. Is it the type of beer? Or the brewer that matters?
Check out the Blue Moon video extra and decide for yourself.
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I think we should all try to keep in mind that we can only ask the consumer to buy what he or she likes. Yes, educate. Yes, suggest they try new things. But, taste should (and will) win the day. That being said, to my taste, Blue Moon is a bland, boring attempt at duplicating the Belgian White (or Wit) style on an industrial scale. Blue Moon, as a brand, is a wild success of marketing. For me, that doesn’t make it taste good.
If it’s all about the taste, then let me say, I like the taste of Blue Moon, Coors and Coors Light. For me, it’s also about price/ value. And sometimes (on sale) the value is there for Blue Moon.
I think Jim Koch, in the bit, would love to be the size of 1/2 of Coors.
Craft beer is AWEsome and I love it. High tech (industrial beer) can be pretty good too.
The owners of all these Craft Breweries ( not necessarily the brewers ) all want to grow bigger and have their sales increase. New Belgium and Sierra Nevada are not small.
An interesting clip and debate. I can’t wait to see the movie, “Beer Wars”.
What’s with the orange slice in Blue Moon?
I agree with John Schmidt and Steve H. Many craft-style beers made by smaller breweries are great, and it is fun to learn about them because of their small and often unique operating style. Craft beer aficionados (e.g., BeerAdvocate) are at their most pretentious and irritating when they demonize a drink like Blue Moon just because it is a Coors product, however.
The clip testifies to what many of us observe in our own lives: Blue Moon is a very popular beer across many demographics. The implication from the clip that, “if they only knew…” is just silly. Apparently absent much or any knowledge of Blue Moon’s origins, people are snapping it up because they like the one thing BeerAdvocates and their ilk say matters: the taste.
The idea that a beer must be small in production, or produced by a mid-sized to small company, to be “craft” is a joke.
That is the whole point of the term craft (rather than micro/macro) to honor those making beers with great taste.
Blue Moon is nowhere near the best Wit I’ve ever had. But it is a real Wit. They don’t take shortcuts. Thus it is craft.
What is so horrible about a big brewery trying to make a beer with great taste?
@Escape2Beer
The Blue Moon brand (only the witbier at the time) was about to tank until a clever rep started suggesting that bartenders put an orange slice in it. COLOR! PRETTY! ME WANT! It worked and before you knew it Blue Moon was one of their best performers. Witness the fancy glasses you’ll get with your otherwise absolutely bland Asahi Super-dry or Peroni lagers. This is what it comes down to – APPEARANCE NOT TASTE! And the money to throw around on glassware and oranges. Now, if they actually used that money to make better beer…
@NMS
The term “craft” for beer and brewer is well defined by the brewers association. What you describe as a joke are part of the actual definition of craft relating to both beer and brewer.
I have the utmost respect for Jim Koch but I can’t help but think he may have been mis represented in this short. I highly doubt he would dump on Coors for being a mega brewery and creating a ‘craft’ product. A craft beer can and should be brewed regardless of the size of the brewery and I’m sure Jim knows this. I mean, he certainly can’t call the Boston Beer Company a micro since its the largest US owned brewery, but you know he’s clinging to that ‘craft brewery’ title for all its worth.
Ok, Here’s the thing… Why should Blue Moon be considered less tasty, less ‘authentic’, less worthy than an ‘authentic craft beer’? Unless you are a conscientious objector to a brewery based on marketing tactics, monopoly, crappy commercials, etc. it really shouldn’t matter if a beer has a parent brewery. Drink What Is Good, and keep trying new things! After all, Sam Adams’ growth has not excluded it from being ‘craft,’ so why is there a double standard? I keep drinking from my local little guys for 2 reasons: it is delicious and I ‘prefer’ to support my local economy. If it sucked, I just wouldn’t drink it, even if it came from next door!
And by the way, what the BA refers to as ‘craft’ is a crap definition. It’s parameters are arbitrary and self-serving and excludes many great international and large breweries from accessing all sorts of great festivals and resources. Now THAT is biased and exclusionary, just as big beer business tactics can be.
Even knowing it’s a Coors product, I’ve had it, and like it, particularly in warm weather. If drinking it gets people to explore other kinds of styles / tastes, I think it’s a win-win. Longtime Bud drinkers will remain longtime Bud drinkers.
Great debate, and I can’t wait to see the film. For my two cents, Blue Moon is not a bad beer — certainly not bad on the same scale as Bud, etc. — but doesn’t hold a candle to either the original Belgian brews that it emulates (I mean, MAN, those beers are like velvet gold) or the American micros that are mining the same territory. As for whether Blue Moon can call itself a craft beer… well, I have never been much for labels being the final word anyway! I am definitely far less likely to drink mass produced stuff no matter what they are calling it. Go BEER WARS!
I really enjoyed reading your wisdom, obviously you know what are you talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I?ve bookmarked it in my favourites
I think what irritates me about the Blue Moon label isn’t whether it should or shouldn’t be a craft beer, but whether it should be labeled what it is. Don’t try to make me believe it was brewed in a tiny brewery in Colorado. If I’m paying for it, I want to know who made it. Sam Adams, a questionable “microbrewery” if we talk size, at least clearly states who’s behind the product. If the big breweries want to change their image of making bad, watered down beers, they shouldn’t hide behind a fancy, “look! I’m NOT REALLY Coors” label.
That said, I didn’t like it. But I have plenty of beer-loving friends who do.