Blue Moon Grand Cru

First of all, before any serious beer geeks out there get on my case, yes I realize that Blue Moon is not a microbrew. I know that it's owned by Molson Coors, but it could be worse...it could be owned by Anheuser Busch. That said, I admit I'll drink Blue Moon occasionally when choices are limited, but this particular brew that was launched at the end of last year particularly piqued my interest.

So...you may or may not be aware of what exactly a "blue moon" is, though you probably at least know that it's rare considering it's associated statement ("once in a blue moon"). A blue moon occurs when there is a second full moon in one month. This past December, that blue moon happened to fall on New Year's Eve. The next time a blue moon will appear on NYE will not be until 2028.

Considering the magnitude of this phenomenon, Blue Moon Brewing Company decided to celebrate the event with a special brew, a Grand Cru. Call me a sucker for buying into beer with a story, but I thought this was interesting. I couldn't find a bottle to have properly on New Year's Eve, but I did find one a couple of weeks ago. At about 8 bucks a bottle (750 mL - about 25 oz), it was worth the purchase. It poured cloudy with a good deal of sediment, though the head was kind of disappointing. It went down very easily, to the point that it was pretty hard to believe that it's 8.2% ABV. So it was very drinkable; I could probably go for 2 bottles in one session. Obviously this was a limited release so get your hands on a bottle now if you can handle the guilt of contributing minutely to a domineering evil beer giant.