The crack of the bat. The roar of a stadium crowd. That first taste of a cold Blue Moon, sitting back to watch a game of baseball. For anyone who’s attended a game at Coors Field, these experiences don’t just feel embedded in the stadium, they actually are. Just as deeply ingrained in Coors Field is Blue Moon, who got its start at that very ballpark as a new season of baseball kicked off on April 26th 1995, following the strike of 1994.
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How Blue Moon was born in a ballpark
Blue Moon was born in a ballpark, quite literally, at the Sandlot Brewery. A tiny but mighty 1700 square foot brewery, tucked in the right field corner of Coors Field. However, this beer was brewed under a different moniker in 1995, known then as Bellyslide Wit. Back then Bellyslide Wit was sold in big red cups instead of Blue Moon’s signature glass, and there was no orange garnish to speak of. Nonetheless, it was the first beer brewed at the Sandlot that really took off, and by the fall of the 1995 season, Molson Coors knew it needed to take the beer to the next level.
‘Wow, this beer is really good. A beer this good only comes along once in a blue moon. You should sell this somewhere besides the baseball stadium.’
“We took Bellyslide Wit to the Molson Coors Golden Brewery, to let them sample it. One of the employees there said, ‘Wow, this beer is really good. A beer this good only comes along once in a blue moon. You should sell this somewhere besides the baseball stadium.’ And so that was the impetus for getting us started, and making it a bigger play” says Blue Moon brewmaster John Legnard, a veteran brewer with a degree in microbiology.
As we moved into a new era of baseball, Blue Moon became a staple in ballparks by expanding its horizons in pioneering the new craft beer movement. “When we started the Sandlot, craft beer was still in its infancy in most of the country. Colorado really took to it really quickly. In 1992, there were 19 breweries in the state. There’s 400 plus now,” says the brewmaster. Blue Moon was at the forefront of the craft beer movement, experimenting with hundreds of flavors, launching some of them nationally, including recent additions Moon Haze and Lightsky Citrus Wheat. They even offer a rotating selection of twenty four beers on tap at their Blue Moon Brewing Company RiNo location.
While Blue Moon is recognized widely now as a refreshing beer with an orange wheel garnish, its humble beginnings speak of an evolution with deep roots not just in the craft beer industry, but baseball’s history too.