Rising to the Seasonal Occasion, with Rising Moon Spring Ale
Feb 01 '08
The Bottom Line Rising Moon is a good example of a fruit- enhanced beer.
Weather conditions are still cold in most of the country and the official start of Spring is still many weeks away. But that has not stopped many brewers from rolling out their Spring seasonal products and I am already seeing several on the store shelves. One in particular caught my attention yesterday because it was a product I had never seen before. It’s Rising Moon, a Spring seasonal beer from Blue Moon Brewing Company.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Rising Moon Spring Ale is tan/orange in color with a perfectly clear body and moderate carbonation. There is little discernable aroma with this beer, with nothing more than a paper- like scent with a touch of fruit in the nose.
Rising Moon offers a pleasant taste of light malt, with a combination of wheat and barley. Some caramel can be detected, too, along with some biscuits and there is a little bit of mixed citrus fruit taste in the finish.
Blue Moon brews Rising Moon using three specialty malts along with Kieffer lime leaves and lime peel. The final analysis on this beer shows an alcohol content of 5.4 percent by volume and there are 164 calories in a 12 oz. serving.
Food Compatibility:
With this type of taste, Rising Moon Spring Ale would match up nicely with salads, Chinese food, lemon chicken, Hawaiian pizza, appetizers of different sorts, and most types of finger food.
Final Thoughts:
Blue Moon Brewing is a company fully owned by the same people who own Coors and it is one of several craft- brewing operations that owe much of its availability and name recognition to the infusion of big advertising bucks from a large brewing business. Blue Moon has succeeded in producing many good- tasting malt beverages and Rising Moon is the latest attempt by Blue Moon to be innovative and to win over new adherents.
Rising Moon is not a beer product I would normally look forward to trying, mainly due to one key reason: The inclusion of limes as a main ingredient. When I see actual fruit on a beer label, I usually approach with caution and expect the worst. I have good reason for feeling the way I do. With a few exceptions, brewers who try to combine fruit with malt often get the mixture wrong, make the beer too sweet, make it taste like something other than beer, etc. My most recent bad experience with fruit and beer was with Miller Chill and I swore off fruity beer for a while after that.
But Rising Moon is different. This beer does feature lime peel and lime leaves as two of its ingredients, but there is no comparison between Rising Moon Spring Ale and other fruity beers, like Miller Chill. The reason is because Rising Moon keeps the lime at a subtle enough level that most drinkers won’t even know it is there. In fact, had I not read the label, I would not have known that limes were added to this ale. I can tell there is a citrus taste, but without the advance knowledge from the label, I would have assumed the citrus taste was the result of something else; most likely the types of hops used in the brewing process.
Rising Moon is medium to light in body and unlike products such as Miller Chill, Rising Moon offers a flavor that is malty and good- the way a beer should taste. As I continue to sip on my second bottle, I notice the crisp wheat/barley combination and it reminds me of a toasted biscuit or toasted cereal. The lime flavor is present, but it doesn’t overwhelm. Unlike Miller Chill, you still know you’re drinking beer, and that is what matters most.
Overall, Rising Moon Spring Ale is a good, easy- drinking beer from Blue Moon Brewing and it is a good enough product to buy and drink on occasion. Rising Moon doesn’t taste much like other Spring seasonals (no Kolsch taste here) and it could easily have been released as a summer seasonal. But it’s still a good beer and I’m going to give Rising Moon Spring Ale 3.5 stars out of 5. It is better than the average fruit beer with a taste that refreshes and satisfies.
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