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Blue Moon: The “Craft” Beer Made by Coors

brianbreslin 12y ago
In school we're doing a case study on Coors and Anheuser Busch Inbev, and effectively any "premium" beers sold by the big beer companies are the same cost to make as the lite versions. They price them higher because of higher perceived value by the consumer.
- dpeck 12y ago
  I find that a little hard to believe as the lite version tend to use a lot of cheaper and less flavorful grain (corn, rice, etc) as adjunct to get the sugar levels up for fermentation instead of costlier malted barley. Big enough difference in price between those for those to make a difference in production cost. This assumes that premium lines tend to be higher in flavor/alcohol than the lite versions, which isn't always true (see Budweisers line) but enough for generalization.
  - aliston 12y ago
    There are other aspects of brewing American lagers that could make them more expensive than typical microbrewed ales. For one, you have to refrigerate lagers and they take longer to ferment. I know Budweiser has some steps after fermentation that I could see adding cost as well. For all the hype around microbrews, it actually takes a lot more effort to brew Coors-type beer than your typical hopped up microbrew IPA. There's less room for error because there is less to mask off flavors. To be honest, I am surprised that the American macro brews haven't touted the craft and history of making their style of beer. The American lager style is really a Bavarian style beer that is 100+ years old -- and its surprisingly difficult to brew.
    - BrainInAJar 12y ago
      > The American lager style is really a Bavarian style beer that is 100+ years old -- and its surprisingly difficult to brew. The difficult Bavarian lager, sure, is more difficult. American adjunct lager is made of rice (which is flavourless), and precisely pH, temperature, etc controlled. This both removes nuance and increases repeatability
    - dpeck 12y ago
      From a process control point of view I've always thought the master brewers doing huge batch american light lagers are very impressive. There is really no room to hide anything there and the people buying your product have likely been doing so for years. Repeatable, precision, and incredible quality control willing to dump the last batch if its not right.
- rascul 12y ago
  Bud and Bud Light are always priced the same in the beer store I normally go to. http://www.inandoutbeverage.com/ http://www.inandoutbeverage.com/
duey 12y ago
This is really common in Australia - I've found the biggest giveaway of a fake-craft brand is that the alcohol content is generally 4.8% (which just happens to be the governments definition of a full-strength beer).
- jacques_chester 12y ago
  Australia goes further. Several "foreign" beers are actually domestically brewed under licence and sold for juicy markups.
  - ics 12y ago
    In the US, where I buy Japanese beers, all are either brewed in the US or Canada under license. If it's brewed in Canada, it's marked up as imported. I doubt it's any different in other countries or for other brands.
  - brc 12y ago
    That is common in all countries. Budweiser in the uk is brewed in the uk and tastes nothing like Budweiser in the us. 'Fosters' the Australian beer, is not really found at all in Australia. Where it is found, it is usually brewed locally.
obstinate 12y ago
I've never heard of blue moon referred to as a craft beer. I always had the sense that it was only a step down from bud light in terms of corporateness.
- nkozyra 12y ago
  Same. It may have been considered a notch above the normal macros maybe 15 years ago, before the whole craft thing went really nuts, but never itself a craft beer. Hell, it was nationally distributed, available in every grocery store in the United States. This is not a unique scenario. InBev owns Leffe and Goose Island, for example.
  - bydo 12y ago
    Goose Island and (especially) Leffe were both extant brands before being acquired by InBev, which is a bit different from Coors creating the Blue Moon myth of whole cloth. InBev's most direct analogue is Shock Top, the packaging of which also avoids any mention of its parentage. Regarding Blue Moon: in the US, at least, their marketing seems dedicated to working in the word "craft" as frequently as possible. I imagine it isn't actually legal for it to be marketed as a "craft beer," as that's a controlled term, but they certainly use both words in isolation.
    - rch 12y ago
      I think Blue Moon was an acquisition too (I went to school in Golden - wouldn't drink it for free).
    - ben1040 12y ago
      >I imagine it isn't actually legal for it to be marketed as a "craft beer," as that's a controlled term On that note, Boston Beer Co (the ones behind Sam Adams) had been pushing for changes to the definition of "craft beer" so their mass-market beer could still fall under that heading. Specifically the 6mm barrel threshold mentioned in the Pricenomics article. http://beerpulse.com/2011/01/brewers-association-enacts-sam-adams-provision-as-brewery-nears-threshold/ http://beerpulse.com/2011/01/brewers-association-enacts-sam-...
leeoniya 12y ago
full list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Molson_Coors_brands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Molson_Coors_brands
leeoniya 12y ago
call me crazy, but i drink Blue Moon and other beers because of the taste - which is nothing like Coors Light - not because i indiscriminately flock to craft beers. i'll pay more because it tastes better, not because of some story. i'm in Breckenridge now, maybe I'll get a Coors factory tour in Golden and thank them for making a beer that doesn't taste like piss.
- tindrlabs 12y ago
  +1 to Coors factory -- Pro tip: skip the bus and walk into the brewery from the West entrance.
- ctide 12y ago
  If you visit the Sandlot at Coors Field, you can actually have 'original recipe' Blue Moon. They have a handful of other beers that are only available there, it's a cool spot to check out if you like Blue Moon.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Heck, you could visit breck brewery.
- tghw 12y ago
  Definitely do the tour. I walked away from it with a respect for Coors. They have some great environmental practices, they run AC Golden pretty much independently, which produces some awesome microbrews, and they've kept at least some identity with the company that Adolf Kors started. When you're in the tasting room, ask for Colorado Native, which is sourced locally and only sold in Colorado, and Batch 19.
  - leeoniya 12y ago
    thanks for the tips, guys. i actually spotted a Colorado Native pack at the Safeway here, i'll grab it in the next few.
onethree 12y ago
But both countries’ products -- and all of Blue Moon’s products world-wide, for that matter -- share one thing in common: nowhere on the packaging is there any indication that the beer is a product of MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the United States. It says quite clearly on the back label on the australian bottles that it's brewed by Coors
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
This is hardly unique to beer, of course. It's not uncommon to find that the little, local café you like? It's a chain, owned by a major supermarket. That "traditional" apple juice/lemonade you liked? It's owned by Coca-Cola/PepsiCo.
- shalmanese 12y ago
  I think there are two categories here though. Small craft operations that got acquired by large conglomerates and large conglomerates deliberately creating a sub-brand to appear craft. Starbucks, for example, opened several coffee shops in Seattle that appeared to be local independents and beared no starbucks branding.
rdtsc 12y ago
Well who cares. I like their winter Mountain Abbey ale. It can still taste good without having been individually brewed by monks in a monastary some place. On the topic if beers PBR -- Pabst Blue Ribbon has an interesting story associated with it. It went from cheap beer considered barely good enough for cooking, to being the premier hipster drink. You couldn't image a flannel and tight jean wearing hipster with a PBR in their hand. It was a fantastic marketing effort, it involved product placement in show, sponsoring of various events and so on.
- username223 12y ago
  Details on PBR? I get that hipsters like to look like lumberjacks, and that actual lumberjacks might drink PBR, but I don't know the origins of the hipster angle. It's dirt cheap, but it tastes awful enough that I rarely even drink it for free.
  - rdtsc 12y ago
    Here you go: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/pbr-coolness-study_n_5399109.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/pbr-coolness-study_... Look at the sales chart went from 140M to 350M in less than 10 years. I knew the person who poached (ok recruited) the CEO of PBR brewing company, that's how I initially heard the story about how they did the marketing campaign.
  - shalmanese 12y ago
    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-no-marketing.html http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-...
  - akbar501 12y ago
    For some it was Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWUXV89w0g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWUXV89w0g http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/quotes
  - rquantz 12y ago
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brc 12y ago
I'm not sure of the point of this article. Are they criticising the strategy? Are they praising it? It seems fair enough to me, as long as it's not just coors light with a different brand. To me this is no different than Toyota developing the Lexus brand because people wouldn't pay big money for Toyotas. After 72 quarters of growth, I think it's fair to assume that people buy it because they like the taste, not because they hide the parent company.
- 300bps 12y ago
  I think it's fair to assume that people buy it because they like the taste I drink Blue Moon. I like the taste but I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb enough to fall for marketing campaigns. In this case, Coors expertly marketed the product to my demographic and it provoked a strong reaction in me to buy it. Personally I'm fine with all this.
  - disgruntledphd2 12y ago
    Funnily enough, I was fooled by the marketing, but only around two years ago, when it first started being sold in Ireland. I did find out from a friend (who's a brewer) that it was produced by Coors, which I didn't like. I still kept drinking it though, as its a nice beer. Honestly though, if I had known it was Coors before I tried it, I probably wouldn't have. So, yeah, marketing works or something, I guess? :)
vasilipupkin 12y ago
Clearly, it's a different product than watered down budweiser style beer. I am not sure I ever cared personally who brewes it. It's decent beer. If a big co makes a decent product, great.
beloch 12y ago
The main advantage megabrewers have over craft brewers is economy of scale. If Coors can crank out Blue Moon in volume and price it below a similar craft beer, then they've got a viable market. If they're pricing Blue Moon the same as similar craft beers, then their margins are much wider than the craft brewers. If a mock-craft beer and a craft beer taste equally good and cost the same, it's a good idea to support diversity by buying the craft brew. The critics seem to agree Blue Moon is one of the best beers Coors makes, and craft brewers are to thank for pressuring Coors to produce decent beer.
joshvm 12y ago
If it tastes good, does it matter? Franziskaner and Leffe are both great beers and are brewed by AB InBev - widely seen as rather scummy amongst homebrewers. Blue Moon is in virtually every pub (I've been to) and supermarket in the UK. It tastes good, but I'm surprised anyone was under the illusion that it was somehow a small operation. I never really saw Blue Moon as a craft beer. In the UK craft beer means ale, you buy whatever happens to be on tap in the pub or you have a nose round your local farmer's market if you want to be really trendy.
- jfb 12y ago
  It doesn't matter, really. If you like it, drink it! There're plenty of more esoteric styles represented these days so that whatever your taste you can find a great micro or macro version. I like Belgians, and think that Fin du Monde is the best of them, regardless of being brewed in Quebec and being owned by Sapporo.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  By obfuscating its brand name on products like Blue Moon, Coors is violating the consumer’s right to know who he is supporting, and where his beverage comes from. The money quote on why it matters.
  - StevePerkins 12y ago
    When I look at a Lexus automobile, I don't see a Toyota nameplate anywhere. Is Toyota therefore "obfuscating" the fact that a Lexus is little more than a glorified Corolla? Is an Acura basically an obfuscated Honda? I don't buy it. Consumers sophisticated enough to care about the provenance of their beer are no doubt well aware that Blue Moon isn't a microbrewery. Consumers who aren't that sophisticated probably don't care, and (gasp!) simply enjoy the way it tastes. The "right to know who I'm supporting" is the key there. I observe that for a lot of people these days, the brands that an individual purchases are a matter of reflecting (or establishing) that individual's own brand identity. "I use Chrome on a MacBook, because that SAYS something about me that using Chrome on a PC wouldn't.", etc. I understand that this is a thing, but like many I am more of a realist by nature and cannot relate at all. The most important factor in my purchasing decisions is cost-benefit ratio, with a generous amount of wiggle-room for subjective style considerations. However, I have zero fucks to give about what a purchase tells other people about my "identity", and am somewhat baffled by people who do. In my mind, if you're pretentious enough that you can't enjoy a beer without confirming its "exclusivity" from major brewers, then it's on you to pull out your phone and spend 20 seconds looking up the brewer on Wikipedia.
jdavis703 12y ago
Honestly it doesn't matter. It tastes good and that's what's important. As long as my beverages and food aren't producded in an unethical manner I really don't care if it comes from a small or large firm.
kalleboo 12y ago
Interesting marketing case. * Large beer company wants to make a beer with more complex flavor. * Consumers who enjoy more complex flavors are negatively prejudiced against the large beer company and stereotype their products. * Large beer company creates separate brand to escape prejudice. * The question is, can they somehow flip this by slowly adding back their branding in order to improve the value of their main brand.
- healsdata 12y ago
  I don't know if they're really concerned about boosting their main brand with the craft brands. InBev produced a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial slamming craft beer, particularly a "pumpkin peach" beer, just a week after they bought a craft brewer that makes a pumpkin peach beer. That leads me to believe that their goal is just to have separate brands that target different demographics.
- eridius 12y ago
  I don't think there's any problem with a large brewery creating a sub-brand to differentiate its products that are aimed at a different market. But I do think Coors has crossed a line in trying to make people think Blue Moon is a craft beer. I don't know how many people they fool, but I certainly thought it was one (though I rarely ever drink it; I also think it's an overhyped beer, perfectly drinkable but not something I'd choose if given a reasonable alternative). For comparison, I didn't realize Shock Top was Anheuser-Busch, but I also didn't think it was a craft beer. Maybe I don't pay much attention and it really is marketed the same way Blue Moon is, but in my mind, Blue Moon crossed a line that Shock Top didn't.
joezydeco 12y ago
I'd like to know how you get something viral to happen with beer drinkers like the ritual of putting an orange slice on a Blue Moon. I've seen people actually get upset when they're handed a draft without it...like the brewer ships mandatory oranges with the kegs or something. Kind of like the whole Corona lime-in-the-bottle-neck thing. Nobody knows or remembers how it started (or so they say).
- slouch 12y ago
  It's as simple as their marketing images have an orange slice.
korethr 12y ago
I've been drinking Blue Moon for years, and I didn't think there was any secret or mystery to the fact that Coors was behind it. Furthermore, reflecting on this, I'm pretty sure I discovered that shortly after I discovered the beer. I guess I assumed everyone else knew as well. I'm not sure it's something worth getting upset about. It tastes good, so I drink it when I'm in the mood for a sweet wheat ale with a hint of orange flavor. IMO, that's the most important criteria for a beer, be it a some mass produced product, a limited release from some forgotten mountain monestary or anywhere between. It has to taste good. I am mildy curious if it is brewed in the same brewery in Golden, or if the subsidiary mentioned in the article has another site and brewery of their own. I shall have to investigate this and see if they do tours.
- tghw 12y ago
  I think it is brewed in Golden (they do most of their beers for the US there). As I mentioned elsewhere, the tour is well worth it. Ask about AC Golden and try Colorado Native and Batch 19.
jsm386 12y ago
A month ago I dove into the topic of "Craft" vs "Crafty" to produce a map of the actual owners of "craft" beers as well as other brands that are marketed as local/independent. The result @ http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/map-actually-makes-your-beer/ http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/map-actually-makes-your-beer/ received a LOT of attention in the beer world. It's been updated four times as it was tough to sort through some of the confusion and obfuscation in marketing, even with the benefit of having had dug through SEC filings, the COLA registry at TTB, and other sources. FWIW, I was contacted for direct clarification from one of the companies indirectly called out in this piece (Kona/Craft Brew Alliance). All that said, I'd argue that association (and particularly a lack of care about such an association by many, many consumers whether or not they know about it) is less interesting than the advantages of being purchased/created by a macro brewer, such as distribution and how that plays out in the 3-tier system in the US.
- ashark 12y ago
  Didn't expect to see Founders and Magic Hat on there, though they're not InBev/MillerCoors (that really would have surprised me!) The Boulevard acquisition's fairly recent. Haven't noticed any changes, really. Still producing a range of decent to very good beer marked up about $1-2/bomber higher than it ought to be. Still putting out interesting new stuff pretty regularly.
- swimfar 12y ago
  That's cool. It reminded me of a similar (though simpler) visualization I saw for whisky: http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tree http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tr...
- diminoten 12y ago
  It got a lot of attention from the beer world? A world that knew the very basic information you presented already? Riight.
- frandroid 12y ago
  In Canada, John Sleeman bought Unibroue, and then Sleeman was bought by Sapporo. Since then, MolsonCoors has been on a buying spree of larger Canadian microbreweries, e.g. Creemore Springs, such that they have gotten better national distribution. I can now find Granville Island ales in Québec City!
geetee 12y ago
I think this article says more about the mind of a quick-to-judge consumer than the corporations that brew and sell the beer.
spacehome 12y ago
> “If a company is proud of itself and also wants to let a beer be judged on its merits, then I see no reason why that company should not clearly boast of its provenance.” It sounds exactly like CoorsMiller wants Blue Moon to be judged based on its merits.
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- heydenberk 12y ago
  Coors has been brewing Blue Moon since 1995, before they introduced the wide mouth can in 1996 or Bud Light Lime in 2008.
poulsbohemian 12y ago
I don't really care if big companies buy up smaller breweries - helps increase distribution and rewards those small brewers who produce a quality product. What I can't stand though is when they promptly start adulterating the recipe - I'm looking at you Miller/Leinenkugels! Before you know it, what used to be a good beer is now nothing but corn and rice filler just like the dull flavorless mega beers. And, you can't move a brewery to the other side of the country in the name of corporate consolidation and pretend you are still brewing the same beer - Olympia wasn't kidding when they said "It's in the water!" and Milwaukee ain't the same as Tumwater!
maxharris 12y ago
> By obfuscating its brand name on products like Blue Moon, Coors is violating the consumer’s right to know who he is supporting, and where his beverage comes from. (I don't think my rights have been violated. They'd have to prevent me from reading this article in order to do that.) This is not fundamentally different than this absurdity: By obfuscating its brand name on products like the Lincoln Navigator, Ford is violating the consumer's right to know who he is supporting, and where his SUV comes from. I really like Stella Artois and Blue Moon, and it doesn't bother me that they're brewed by large brewers. What makes a beer good is not the fact that the company that makes it is of a certain size. I love being able to go to a bar I've never been to and have at least two good options of last resort if they don't carry something else that I know I'll like.

In school we're doing a case study on Coors and Anheuser Busch Inbev, and effectively any "premium" beers sold by the big beer companies are the same cost to make as the lite versions. They price them higher because of higher perceived value by the consumer.

dpeck 12y ago
I find that a little hard to believe as the lite version tend to use a lot of cheaper and less flavorful grain (corn, rice, etc) as adjunct to get the sugar levels up for fermentation instead of costlier malted barley. Big enough difference in price between those for those to make a difference in production cost. This assumes that premium lines tend to be higher in flavor/alcohol than the lite versions, which isn't always true (see Budweisers line) but enough for generalization.
- aliston 12y ago
  There are other aspects of brewing American lagers that could make them more expensive than typical microbrewed ales. For one, you have to refrigerate lagers and they take longer to ferment. I know Budweiser has some steps after fermentation that I could see adding cost as well. For all the hype around microbrews, it actually takes a lot more effort to brew Coors-type beer than your typical hopped up microbrew IPA. There's less room for error because there is less to mask off flavors. To be honest, I am surprised that the American macro brews haven't touted the craft and history of making their style of beer. The American lager style is really a Bavarian style beer that is 100+ years old -- and its surprisingly difficult to brew.
  - BrainInAJar 12y ago
    > The American lager style is really a Bavarian style beer that is 100+ years old -- and its surprisingly difficult to brew. The difficult Bavarian lager, sure, is more difficult. American adjunct lager is made of rice (which is flavourless), and precisely pH, temperature, etc controlled. This both removes nuance and increases repeatability
  - dpeck 12y ago
    From a process control point of view I've always thought the master brewers doing huge batch american light lagers are very impressive. There is really no room to hide anything there and the people buying your product have likely been doing so for years. Repeatable, precision, and incredible quality control willing to dump the last batch if its not right.
rascul 12y ago
Bud and Bud Light are always priced the same in the beer store I normally go to. http://www.inandoutbeverage.com/ http://www.inandoutbeverage.com/

duey 12y ago

This is really common in Australia - I've found the biggest giveaway of a fake-craft brand is that the alcohol content is generally 4.8% (which just happens to be the governments definition of a full-strength beer).

jacques_chester 12y ago
Australia goes further. Several "foreign" beers are actually domestically brewed under licence and sold for juicy markups.
- ics 12y ago
  In the US, where I buy Japanese beers, all are either brewed in the US or Canada under license. If it's brewed in Canada, it's marked up as imported. I doubt it's any different in other countries or for other brands.
- brc 12y ago
  That is common in all countries. Budweiser in the uk is brewed in the uk and tastes nothing like Budweiser in the us. 'Fosters' the Australian beer, is not really found at all in Australia. Where it is found, it is usually brewed locally.

obstinate 12y ago

I've never heard of blue moon referred to as a craft beer. I always had the sense that it was only a step down from bud light in terms of corporateness.

nkozyra 12y ago
Same. It may have been considered a notch above the normal macros maybe 15 years ago, before the whole craft thing went really nuts, but never itself a craft beer. Hell, it was nationally distributed, available in every grocery store in the United States. This is not a unique scenario. InBev owns Leffe and Goose Island, for example.
- bydo 12y ago
  Goose Island and (especially) Leffe were both extant brands before being acquired by InBev, which is a bit different from Coors creating the Blue Moon myth of whole cloth. InBev's most direct analogue is Shock Top, the packaging of which also avoids any mention of its parentage. Regarding Blue Moon: in the US, at least, their marketing seems dedicated to working in the word "craft" as frequently as possible. I imagine it isn't actually legal for it to be marketed as a "craft beer," as that's a controlled term, but they certainly use both words in isolation.
  - rch 12y ago
    I think Blue Moon was an acquisition too (I went to school in Golden - wouldn't drink it for free).
  - ben1040 12y ago
    >I imagine it isn't actually legal for it to be marketed as a "craft beer," as that's a controlled term On that note, Boston Beer Co (the ones behind Sam Adams) had been pushing for changes to the definition of "craft beer" so their mass-market beer could still fall under that heading. Specifically the 6mm barrel threshold mentioned in the Pricenomics article. http://beerpulse.com/2011/01/brewers-association-enacts-sam-adams-provision-as-brewery-nears-threshold/ http://beerpulse.com/2011/01/brewers-association-enacts-sam-...

leeoniya 12y ago

full list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Molson_Coors_brands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Molson_Coors_brands

leeoniya 12y ago

call me crazy, but i drink Blue Moon and other beers because of the taste - which is nothing like Coors Light - not because i indiscriminately flock to craft beers. i'll pay more because it tastes better, not because of some story. i'm in Breckenridge now, maybe I'll get a Coors factory tour in Golden and thank them for making a beer that doesn't taste like piss.

tindrlabs 12y ago
+1 to Coors factory -- Pro tip: skip the bus and walk into the brewery from the West entrance.
ctide 12y ago
If you visit the Sandlot at Coors Field, you can actually have 'original recipe' Blue Moon. They have a handful of other beers that are only available there, it's a cool spot to check out if you like Blue Moon.
sliverstorm 12y ago
Heck, you could visit breck brewery.
tghw 12y ago
Definitely do the tour. I walked away from it with a respect for Coors. They have some great environmental practices, they run AC Golden pretty much independently, which produces some awesome microbrews, and they've kept at least some identity with the company that Adolf Kors started. When you're in the tasting room, ask for Colorado Native, which is sourced locally and only sold in Colorado, and Batch 19.
- leeoniya 12y ago
  thanks for the tips, guys. i actually spotted a Colorado Native pack at the Safeway here, i'll grab it in the next few.

onethree 12y ago

But both countries’ products -- and all of Blue Moon’s products world-wide, for that matter -- share one thing in common: nowhere on the packaging is there any indication that the beer is a product of MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the United States. It says quite clearly on the back label on the australian bottles that it's brewed by Coors

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

This is hardly unique to beer, of course. It's not uncommon to find that the little, local café you like? It's a chain, owned by a major supermarket. That "traditional" apple juice/lemonade you liked? It's owned by Coca-Cola/PepsiCo.

shalmanese 12y ago
I think there are two categories here though. Small craft operations that got acquired by large conglomerates and large conglomerates deliberately creating a sub-brand to appear craft. Starbucks, for example, opened several coffee shops in Seattle that appeared to be local independents and beared no starbucks branding.

rdtsc 12y ago

Well who cares. I like their winter Mountain Abbey ale. It can still taste good without having been individually brewed by monks in a monastary some place. On the topic if beers PBR -- Pabst Blue Ribbon has an interesting story associated with it. It went from cheap beer considered barely good enough for cooking, to being the premier hipster drink. You couldn't image a flannel and tight jean wearing hipster with a PBR in their hand. It was a fantastic marketing effort, it involved product placement in show, sponsoring of various events and so on.

username223 12y ago
Details on PBR? I get that hipsters like to look like lumberjacks, and that actual lumberjacks might drink PBR, but I don't know the origins of the hipster angle. It's dirt cheap, but it tastes awful enough that I rarely even drink it for free.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  Here you go: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/pbr-coolness-study_n_5399109.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/pbr-coolness-study_... Look at the sales chart went from 140M to 350M in less than 10 years. I knew the person who poached (ok recruited) the CEO of PBR brewing company, that's how I initially heard the story about how they did the marketing campaign.
- shalmanese 12y ago
  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-no-marketing.html http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-...
- akbar501 12y ago
  For some it was Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWUXV89w0g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWUXV89w0g http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/quotes
- rquantz 12y ago

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brc 12y ago

I'm not sure of the point of this article. Are they criticising the strategy? Are they praising it? It seems fair enough to me, as long as it's not just coors light with a different brand. To me this is no different than Toyota developing the Lexus brand because people wouldn't pay big money for Toyotas. After 72 quarters of growth, I think it's fair to assume that people buy it because they like the taste, not because they hide the parent company.

300bps 12y ago
I think it's fair to assume that people buy it because they like the taste I drink Blue Moon. I like the taste but I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb enough to fall for marketing campaigns. In this case, Coors expertly marketed the product to my demographic and it provoked a strong reaction in me to buy it. Personally I'm fine with all this.
- disgruntledphd2 12y ago
  Funnily enough, I was fooled by the marketing, but only around two years ago, when it first started being sold in Ireland. I did find out from a friend (who's a brewer) that it was produced by Coors, which I didn't like. I still kept drinking it though, as its a nice beer. Honestly though, if I had known it was Coors before I tried it, I probably wouldn't have. So, yeah, marketing works or something, I guess? :)

vasilipupkin 12y ago

Clearly, it's a different product than watered down budweiser style beer. I am not sure I ever cared personally who brewes it. It's decent beer. If a big co makes a decent product, great.

beloch 12y ago

The main advantage megabrewers have over craft brewers is economy of scale. If Coors can crank out Blue Moon in volume and price it below a similar craft beer, then they've got a viable market. If they're pricing Blue Moon the same as similar craft beers, then their margins are much wider than the craft brewers. If a mock-craft beer and a craft beer taste equally good and cost the same, it's a good idea to support diversity by buying the craft brew. The critics seem to agree Blue Moon is one of the best beers Coors makes, and craft brewers are to thank for pressuring Coors to produce decent beer.

joshvm 12y ago

If it tastes good, does it matter? Franziskaner and Leffe are both great beers and are brewed by AB InBev - widely seen as rather scummy amongst homebrewers. Blue Moon is in virtually every pub (I've been to) and supermarket in the UK. It tastes good, but I'm surprised anyone was under the illusion that it was somehow a small operation. I never really saw Blue Moon as a craft beer. In the UK craft beer means ale, you buy whatever happens to be on tap in the pub or you have a nose round your local farmer's market if you want to be really trendy.

jfb 12y ago
It doesn't matter, really. If you like it, drink it! There're plenty of more esoteric styles represented these days so that whatever your taste you can find a great micro or macro version. I like Belgians, and think that Fin du Monde is the best of them, regardless of being brewed in Quebec and being owned by Sapporo.
sliverstorm 12y ago
By obfuscating its brand name on products like Blue Moon, Coors is violating the consumer’s right to know who he is supporting, and where his beverage comes from. The money quote on why it matters.
- StevePerkins 12y ago
  When I look at a Lexus automobile, I don't see a Toyota nameplate anywhere. Is Toyota therefore "obfuscating" the fact that a Lexus is little more than a glorified Corolla? Is an Acura basically an obfuscated Honda? I don't buy it. Consumers sophisticated enough to care about the provenance of their beer are no doubt well aware that Blue Moon isn't a microbrewery. Consumers who aren't that sophisticated probably don't care, and (gasp!) simply enjoy the way it tastes. The "right to know who I'm supporting" is the key there. I observe that for a lot of people these days, the brands that an individual purchases are a matter of reflecting (or establishing) that individual's own brand identity. "I use Chrome on a MacBook, because that SAYS something about me that using Chrome on a PC wouldn't.", etc. I understand that this is a thing, but like many I am more of a realist by nature and cannot relate at all. The most important factor in my purchasing decisions is cost-benefit ratio, with a generous amount of wiggle-room for subjective style considerations. However, I have zero fucks to give about what a purchase tells other people about my "identity", and am somewhat baffled by people who do. In my mind, if you're pretentious enough that you can't enjoy a beer without confirming its "exclusivity" from major brewers, then it's on you to pull out your phone and spend 20 seconds looking up the brewer on Wikipedia.

jdavis703 12y ago

Honestly it doesn't matter. It tastes good and that's what's important. As long as my beverages and food aren't producded in an unethical manner I really don't care if it comes from a small or large firm.

kalleboo 12y ago

Interesting marketing case. * Large beer company wants to make a beer with more complex flavor. * Consumers who enjoy more complex flavors are negatively prejudiced against the large beer company and stereotype their products. * Large beer company creates separate brand to escape prejudice. * The question is, can they somehow flip this by slowly adding back their branding in order to improve the value of their main brand.

healsdata 12y ago
I don't know if they're really concerned about boosting their main brand with the craft brands. InBev produced a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial slamming craft beer, particularly a "pumpkin peach" beer, just a week after they bought a craft brewer that makes a pumpkin peach beer. That leads me to believe that their goal is just to have separate brands that target different demographics.
eridius 12y ago
I don't think there's any problem with a large brewery creating a sub-brand to differentiate its products that are aimed at a different market. But I do think Coors has crossed a line in trying to make people think Blue Moon is a craft beer. I don't know how many people they fool, but I certainly thought it was one (though I rarely ever drink it; I also think it's an overhyped beer, perfectly drinkable but not something I'd choose if given a reasonable alternative). For comparison, I didn't realize Shock Top was Anheuser-Busch, but I also didn't think it was a craft beer. Maybe I don't pay much attention and it really is marketed the same way Blue Moon is, but in my mind, Blue Moon crossed a line that Shock Top didn't.

joezydeco 12y ago

I'd like to know how you get something viral to happen with beer drinkers like the ritual of putting an orange slice on a Blue Moon. I've seen people actually get upset when they're handed a draft without it...like the brewer ships mandatory oranges with the kegs or something. Kind of like the whole Corona lime-in-the-bottle-neck thing. Nobody knows or remembers how it started (or so they say).

slouch 12y ago
It's as simple as their marketing images have an orange slice.

korethr 12y ago

I've been drinking Blue Moon for years, and I didn't think there was any secret or mystery to the fact that Coors was behind it. Furthermore, reflecting on this, I'm pretty sure I discovered that shortly after I discovered the beer. I guess I assumed everyone else knew as well. I'm not sure it's something worth getting upset about. It tastes good, so I drink it when I'm in the mood for a sweet wheat ale with a hint of orange flavor. IMO, that's the most important criteria for a beer, be it a some mass produced product, a limited release from some forgotten mountain monestary or anywhere between. It has to taste good. I am mildy curious if it is brewed in the same brewery in Golden, or if the subsidiary mentioned in the article has another site and brewery of their own. I shall have to investigate this and see if they do tours.

tghw 12y ago
I think it is brewed in Golden (they do most of their beers for the US there). As I mentioned elsewhere, the tour is well worth it. Ask about AC Golden and try Colorado Native and Batch 19.

jsm386 12y ago

A month ago I dove into the topic of "Craft" vs "Crafty" to produce a map of the actual owners of "craft" beers as well as other brands that are marketed as local/independent. The result @ http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/map-actually-makes-your-beer/ http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/map-actually-makes-your-beer/ received a LOT of attention in the beer world. It's been updated four times as it was tough to sort through some of the confusion and obfuscation in marketing, even with the benefit of having had dug through SEC filings, the COLA registry at TTB, and other sources. FWIW, I was contacted for direct clarification from one of the companies indirectly called out in this piece (Kona/Craft Brew Alliance). All that said, I'd argue that association (and particularly a lack of care about such an association by many, many consumers whether or not they know about it) is less interesting than the advantages of being purchased/created by a macro brewer, such as distribution and how that plays out in the 3-tier system in the US.

ashark 12y ago
Didn't expect to see Founders and Magic Hat on there, though they're not InBev/MillerCoors (that really would have surprised me!) The Boulevard acquisition's fairly recent. Haven't noticed any changes, really. Still producing a range of decent to very good beer marked up about $1-2/bomber higher than it ought to be. Still putting out interesting new stuff pretty regularly.
swimfar 12y ago
That's cool. It reminded me of a similar (though simpler) visualization I saw for whisky: http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tree http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tr...
diminoten 12y ago
It got a lot of attention from the beer world? A world that knew the very basic information you presented already? Riight.
frandroid 12y ago
In Canada, John Sleeman bought Unibroue, and then Sleeman was bought by Sapporo. Since then, MolsonCoors has been on a buying spree of larger Canadian microbreweries, e.g. Creemore Springs, such that they have gotten better national distribution. I can now find Granville Island ales in Québec City!

geetee 12y ago

I think this article says more about the mind of a quick-to-judge consumer than the corporations that brew and sell the beer.

spacehome 12y ago

> “If a company is proud of itself and also wants to let a beer be judged on its merits, then I see no reason why that company should not clearly boast of its provenance.” It sounds exactly like CoorsMiller wants Blue Moon to be judged based on its merits.

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heydenberk 12y ago
Coors has been brewing Blue Moon since 1995, before they introduced the wide mouth can in 1996 or Bud Light Lime in 2008.

poulsbohemian 12y ago

I don't really care if big companies buy up smaller breweries - helps increase distribution and rewards those small brewers who produce a quality product. What I can't stand though is when they promptly start adulterating the recipe - I'm looking at you Miller/Leinenkugels! Before you know it, what used to be a good beer is now nothing but corn and rice filler just like the dull flavorless mega beers. And, you can't move a brewery to the other side of the country in the name of corporate consolidation and pretend you are still brewing the same beer - Olympia wasn't kidding when they said "It's in the water!" and Milwaukee ain't the same as Tumwater!

maxharris 12y ago

> By obfuscating its brand name on products like Blue Moon, Coors is violating the consumer’s right to know who he is supporting, and where his beverage comes from. (I don't think my rights have been violated. They'd have to prevent me from reading this article in order to do that.) This is not fundamentally different than this absurdity: By obfuscating its brand name on products like the Lincoln Navigator, Ford is violating the consumer's right to know who he is supporting, and where his SUV comes from. I really like Stella Artois and Blue Moon, and it doesn't bother me that they're brewed by large brewers. What makes a beer good is not the fact that the company that makes it is of a certain size. I love being able to go to a bar I've never been to and have at least two good options of last resort if they don't carry something else that I know I'll like.