Saturday, January 1, 2011

Drinking Blue Moon out of the Bottle – Celery Taste?

Ron R. sent me the original question, ‘Why does Blue Moon taste different on tap versus the bottle?’
You can read my response to that question on the December 28th posting.

I did find out that Ron and his wife were drinking the Blue Moon out of the bottle.

Remember, good quality beers should always be drank from a good beer glass. Your beer glass should only be for beer only.


I poured the Blue Moon out of the bottle down to the last couple of ounces.
Here are the last two ounces. See all the sediment.  The liquid looks white.

With bottle conditioned beer and unfiltered beer you will have sediment in the bottle that needs to be stirred up and poured into the glass to enjoy all the flavors and aromas that the beer has to offer. The reason all good beers should be poured into a glass is for the same reason – you want to enjoy all the aromas and flavors from the beer! When you can smell the aromas of a malted beverage the flavors will just follow.


You can see some sediment still in the bottom of the bottle.

Drinking out of a bottle or can you cannot enjoy the aromas. Miller, Bud, Coors, and other such beers can be enjoyed out of a bottle or can. One, these are not going to be called good beers here. Two, they don’t have any aromas to help taste the sugar sweetened yellow water. (Guinness Stout in the bottle or can has the little widget inside to help give you that tap beer taste. This beer you drink out of a can or bottle and do not pour it into a glass.)


Ron R. said, he thought that Blue Moon tasted like celery from the bottle. Time for more research!

Aroma: muted coriander only to me, no orange. Wait! That is a strange smell. I get the celery bottle out of the spice cabinet and give it a smell. Smells like … smell again … Blue Moon! Smell the bottle nothing. Perfect. If it smelled like coriander then the coriander smell would win out. But, when you smell celery (any aroma) then, smell another item with the same smell it will usually cancel out that aroma. I read that on an article about the science of smell. (I think I have the link to that on this blog. Look at the first months postings.)

Then, I tasted the Blue Moon after I cleared the air so to say. It taste like … oh, yes … CELERY!

Ron, go buy a spice bottle of celery and do this same experiment with your wife. Then, she may believe you. How do you like that a wife who doubted her loving husband.

11 comments:

  1. Ron, now I know why 8 years ago when I drank this beer I hated it and did not have it since. I drank it from a bottle at my friends house. I had forgotten that detail until your question came in.
    Drinking Blue Moon from the bottle is a bad tasting experience. In other words 'it sucks'

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  2. i completely agree it's like drinking two different beers.

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  3. any homebrewer can tell you a bottle conditioned beer should be poured from the bottle into a glass leaving the last 1/4" or so of yeast cake. That is yeast slurry and that can impart bad flavors if mixed with the beer. Not to mention it can give you gas. (From John Palmer's "How to Brew": "Pouring your beer. To pour the beer without getting yeast in your glass, tip the bottle slowly to avoid disturbing the yeast layer on the bottom of the bottle. With practice, you will be able to pour everything but the last quarter inch of beer without getting any yeast in your glass.")

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  4. This is great advice for drinking homebrew, but no commercial beer should be like this. This must be Miller's idea of what good beer is like.

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  5. On quality beers the yeast will add some better flavors and aroma. With beers using Belgian yeast and the beer is made with wheat - you will get some wheat and yeast sediment - not a 1/4 inch. You want to either roll the bottle before opening or swirl the bottle with the last inch or two of beer to get that sediment. In good yeast you are also getting the vitamin B. And, yes cheap home brewers yeast is just paste.

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  6. make sure you shake it for some ten seconds or so. You can remove the cartridge holder before you put the syphon to use. Glass bottles Suppliers

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  7. Just wanted to add to all your conversations
    Myself originating from Austria Europe where we have breweries in every other city. I myself love white beer also called in the states Yeast Beer and its cloudy. We drink it with a wedge of lemon which gives the beer like aemony flavor. The original Austrian white brand is Erdinger. I saw theBlue Moon in the store and though, well it looks like the Erdinger, cloudy, settlement, the only disturbing thing was the orang slice atop the bottle. I was Dirsty, the beer was icecold, i opened the bottle and took a huge swig,........... YAK WTF!!! This was the utmoast worst beer I ever tasted?!? What dies that have to do with an Orange, all I could compare the taste to was, CELERY, VEGETABLE Garden, and worse! I gave it to one of my most favored neighbors;))
    This Brew Just Plainly Sucks!!

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    Replies
    1. Funny you say this...I feel the same but am from the United states.

      I bought a winter variety pack and everything else tastes marvelous...down the line, this being the last beer I chose, all I could taste was celery.

      I hate celery.
      I googled "white ale taste like celery" and it led me here.

      I kind figure if I can drink this I can eat celery, in which case this beer has done one positive thing-gotten me to eat vegetables...but not quite yet.

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  9. I get the same taste of celery from both Blue Moon and ShockTop, my wife thinks I'm crazy but I can't stand those beers because of it. I always pour my bottled beers into a pint glass that's specifically for my beer, it doesn't help with the celery flavor for these two beers and I've never ordered it on tap because of my bad tasting bottled experiences. It's nice to see I'm not alone here, I get the crazy eye from people when I mention it to my friends.

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  10. I’ve had it in a glass at a bar and also thought it tasted like celery- hate it- hate Heineken too because to me it tastes like caramel- I love caramel just not mixed with beer

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