Blue Moon beer is an uber-popular a Belgian-style Witbier. And in spite of its independent craft brewery imaging it’s part of the Molson Coors family of beers.
But Blue Moon has been growing its own family of beers and the company wants grow its identity as not just a beer, but a brewery. The national craft beer organization, the Brewers Association doesn’t consider Blue Moon a true craft beer (at least according to their definition), but still it’s the best-selling Belgian Witbier in the country and Molson Coors wants to reinforce its brewery status.
Obviously the Blue Moon crew disagrees with the Brewers Association and wants to be considered a craft beer. And one of the ways you might do that is to stress you’re an independent brewery, even though the brand is brewed and many Molson Coors breweries throughout the world.
Speaking last week at the Molson Coors Distributor Convention in Nashville, Mara Schaefer, senior director of brand marketing for Molson Coors, said the brewery is “embracing our heritage of one unified Blue Moon Brewing Company. Innovations like LightSky and Moon Haze have shifted us from a single hero brand to a family of well-crafted approachable beers”
“Blue Moon LightSky, a 4% ABV citrus ale brewed with tangerine peel, has been a hit since it landed on shelves during the height of the pandemic” reports Beer & Beyond. “Today it’s bigger in sales dollars and volume than competitors like Samuel Adams Boston Lager, New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale and the entire Shock Top franchise, according to year-to-date IRI multi-outlet and convenience store data.”
Moon Haze Hazy IPA which was first brewed at Blue Moon’s small batch brewery in Denver, beat out 136 competitors in a blind tasting to win a gold medal at the 2020 Great American Beer Festival competition for the best juicy or hazy pale ale.
That’s a big win for a beer that craft beer purists might want to dismiss because it’s made by Molson Coors.
“The craft landscape is a lot more crowded than when Blue Moon first came onto the scene,” Schaefer added. “As the Blue Moon Brewing Company, we’ll unite our beers so consumers can clearly find them and buy them, whether they’re looking for their old faithful, a lighter take on craft or something more experimental.”
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(All image credits: Blue Moon Brewing Company)