Blue Moon celebrates 20th anniversary
Consumers may care a lot about company ownership when choosing a craft beer over a “crafty” one, but this seemingly has not stopped the rise of Blue Moon, the unfiltered Belgian-style wheat beer which is brewed by Molson Coors. In 2014, Blue Moon sold over 2 million barrels, which would make the brand, part of MillerCoors’ craft beer division Tenth and Blake, one of the best-selling U.S. craft beers, were it not considered “crafty” because it is brewed by one of the Big Brewers.
Following market trends closely, it was only a matter of time before MillerCoors would turn to releasing their own IPA, given that AB-InBev beat them to it by launching a Shock Top Wheat IPA back in 2012.
As part of Blue Moon’s 20th anniversary, MillerCoors in April 2015 rolled out a Blue Moon White IPA, which reportedly combines the best of both styles: part American IPA and part Belgian-style White.
On Friday, 31 July, which featured a lunar blue moon, Blue Moon celebrated its 20th anniversary proper. During the evening’s moonlit hours, more than 750 celebrations took place nationwide, culminating in a cross-country toast of Blue Moon at 10 p.m. local time at each location.
We wonder if those punters cared at all or even knew that in May 2015 a man from California filed a class action suit against MillerCoors, charging that the beer giant misleads customers by marketing Blue Moon as a craft beer?
