Blue Moon Full Moon Winter Ale

Brewed by Coors Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Golden, Colorado USA

Pours darkish copper with a medium lasting head and moderate carbonation. A nice looking appearance. Aroma and flavor is sort of a metallic malt that turns a little sweeter as it warms. Also light spice and touches of citrus. Not bad.

The label says "An abbey ale brewed with a hint of dark Belgian sugar". Oh there is sugar alright, but much more than a hint. This stuff is way too syrupy sweet with almost no added character to comment on. The monks would be calling down incantations invoking wrath if they ever tasted this! (...monks do that kind of shit, right?)

Well, it pours out brown with a medium beige head. aroma is sugar and just a slight bit of yeast. flavor is nothing more than sugar. A friend drinking this with me described it as snow cream we had as children. Not exactly a great taste for beer.

On-tap. served in a standard bar pint glass. I’ve been told by a couple of reliable sources and a local Coors sales rep that is the promised new recipe winter 2007/2008 seasonal release and Coors is now calling this an Abbey Dubbel, no longer a winter warmer. Then today another Coors rep I know showed me the Blue Moon press release and Coors called this an "Abbey single-style ale." I have no idea what that is. Well, it does look like a filtered amber ale, poured a clear dull amber with frothy off-white head, decent retention, fair amount of sticky lace, not a bad start for an Coors product. The nose is not that impressive, faint aromas of roasted caramel malts, subtle fruitiness, apples and maybe pears, touches of brown sugar and something that resembles a herbal hop. This is different tasting from past editions of the Winter Ale, but for a dubbel, "Abbey single" or pale ale, I’m sorry, it’s a pretty poor example of any type of Belgian style. The body is smooth with a little watery creaminess, but lacks the malty heft one expects in any Belgian style. The thinest tastes of roasted caramel malts that are dominated by the dark sugars. There is also a subtle roasted nuttiness. Light apple juice flavor, once again, sweeten by the sugars. The hops start out a herbal leafy before turning softly spicy at the end. The spiciness mixes with the sugars and thinly roasted malts for a quick and dry finish. If you’re going to change the recipe, then you should at least attempt to improve it, especially if you have the nerve to call this "an Abbey ale." Disappointing to say in the least, I was hoping for better.

Bottle... Poured a ruby with a fat white head. Came off more like an amber ale than an abbey, not sure where they were going with this. Anyway, toasted malt aroma, chewy texture with strong malt presence and a hop backing. Sweet finish. If Coors is going to keep using the Blue Moon name, they better start making an effort.

yeah, just as I figured. This beer blows. I wanted to try something different and I rolled the dice. I know blue moon is a coors subsidiary....but I thought....maybe, just maybe -this would be different. NO DICE. If your looking for a weak flavors, fake beer. You’ve found it. If you want quaility.....look else where.

Poured with a very nice head which dissapated but kept good lacing. It has a clear light amber color and not much aroma to speak of. It can’t be called an abbey dubbel. The mouth feel is thin and shot of the unoffensive caramel flavor there’s not much to it. Tastes a like Killian’s doesn’t it Coors?

This was a cheap version of a winter beer but I would drink it again. Not a bad brew but definitely not Belgian.