Blue Moon Tells Beer Snobs to Drink Up and Show Respect: Retail

MillerCoors LLC has a message for beer snobs: Blue Moon is an authentic craft brew. So show a little respect.

Aficionados long ago dubbed Blue Moon an impostor cooked up by a megabrewer to exploit the explosive growth of artisanal beer. In recent months, small beermakers have stepped up their attacks -- calling suds like Blue Moon “crafty” for not spelling out their corporate parentage. Micro breweries have reason to be defensive: Blue Moon has grabbed what equals 15 percent of the U.S. craft market, expanded as far as Japan and spawned an Anheuser-Busch InBev NV knockoff called Shock Top.