Blue Moon Belgian White Wheat Ale

For the first beer review on this blog I wanted to go with a beer that I'm very familiar with.  Blue Moon has always been one of my favorites- especially the Belgian White.  Blue Moon is a Coors product, and this beer is known for the unique use of orange peel and coriander in its recipe.  When you get to the bottom of it- this beer is just downright tasty.

Blue Moon Belgian White is a non filtered wheat ale.  Due to the lack of filtration, the beer has a nice glowing look that is cloudy and appears to be a golden amber in color.  The aroma from this beer is amazing.  When I smell it, I am just lured into it and it draws me in.  The smell of wheat and orange is dominant and it has a nice hoppy finish with a foamy white head.

Many establishments serve this beer with a slice of orange, something I had never done before.  I always drank this beer as it is, and so I decided to do a dual review on this beer.  I reviewed it with an orange and without an orange.  I enjoyed the beer both times, but the orange definitely brought out some flavors in the beer that I hadn't noticed before.  Some people like these flavors while others do not.

I sided against the orange slice, as it brought out too much of the spice in the beer and it tasted overly acidic for my tastes.  In my opinion, it turned the normal sweetness of the beer into borderline sour.  The orange also completed destroyed the foamy head of the beer- absolutely obliterating what was once a beautiful finishing touch to the eye on a great beer.

What I did not notice a lot of when tasting this beer in both cases was hops.  They were present, but they were not dominant, adding just the right amount of bitterness to the beer.  American breweries tend to over hop their beers, but Coors did a good job of not doing that in this case.  All in all this was a great beer, and remains one of my favorites.

Blue Moon Belgian White Ale has just enough citrus and sweetness to tickle your tongue, and it goes down smooth.  It isn't a very thin beer by any means either.  I didn't feel any watery sensation, but the beer was not like a syrup either.  A perfect medium bodied beer, well crafted and well done.

I give this beer a 10 out of 10 without the orange slice.  The orange slice brought out too much flavor dissonance for me to give it a 10, so with the orange it gets an 8 out of 10.  It is still a good beer, orange or no orange.  Thanks for reading, and please share this with all your friends who enjoy beer.  Keep drinking good beer!