Blue Moon Vanilla Wheat
Blue Moon Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

very drinkable beer.

 

 

 

 

 

Brewmaster's Seasonal Sampler 12-pack - $12.99 at Kroger in Woodstock, Georgia.

Best Before: JUN1316.

Appearance: Pours a cloudy, pale orangey body with a slim, quickly receding white head.

Smell: Not overly effusive in the aromatics. Meager wheaty maltiness, a thin, fast sniff of vanilla additive with a little bitterish dried orange peel snippets.

Taste: Lightly bready, wheaty, a bit swee--- actually, it's like a diet cream soda mixed with a portion of Blue Moon. Fairly prominent, sweet vanilla flavorin'. Turns a bit wheat with a crisp, crunchy graininess with a small zing of spiciness and orange on the tail end.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation.

Overall: Again, for me, it's 3/4 diet cream soda and 1/4 Blue Moon.

 

My 50th review. Might as well make it for a Coors product. I'm setting the bar high.

This pours a dark orange, very similar to Blue Moon Belgian White but rustier and less cloudy. A thin white head is gone in 60 seconds. The smell is interesting. When cold, I don't get much. It smells vaguely like their cinnamon horchata beer. A sweetness there certainly, but not necessarily vanilla. As it warms, though, it gets a bit more complex. The vanilla is there, but I'd describe the dominant note as a grainy shortbread cookie sweetness.

The taste, like the nose, starts off fairly mild when cold and develops a bit as it warms. This is very drinkable but, admittedly, a bit boring, even as it approaches room temperature. The vanilla is subtle. Midway through the glass, it starts to taste a little spiced-rum-like. Interesting, yes, but also evocative of a few nights I overdid the Captain Morgan Private Stock.

Mouthfeel is thin. I get that they're going for accessible here, but at least the cinnamon horchata beer has the creaminess to match the flavor profile.

Overall, above average for a seasonal Blue Moon. A little bland and not all too different from the Belgian White. A B- for me.