World Series of Beer: Home brew

This one's coming in late, as I was on the road much of yesterday and left with little time to blog last night. But I did want to make sure we got in the final innings of our showdown between Massachusetts brewing and Colorado brewing, timed to coincide with the World Series between the Red Sox & the Rockies.

Colorado's game-four beer is straight from the source: Blue Moon Belgian-style Wheat Ale was cooked up by the Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field. Coors opened this brewpub when the park opened for the Rockies' first game in 1995. Just as the team has quickly risen to prominence, Blue Moon quickly climbed the ranks from brewpub special to national distribution and commercial success.

Coors may have a reputation with beer snobs as a producer of boring, light-weight light lagers, but their Sandlot operation, by all accounts is a good place to get great beer. And Blue Moon is a pretty good imitation of the Belgian wit style, with citrus and coriander flavor. If nothing else, its broad distribution and the marketing support provided by Coors have helped to broaden the average consumer's beer experience, opening millions of peoples' minds to different styles and flavors.

While the home team did not emerge victorious last night (the Rockies lost 4-3 to give the Sox a four-game sweep and the World Series title), at least they and their fans have some good beer to cry into.

Like Blue Moon? There's more where that came from

Expect more experiments from Coors Brewing Co. The Wall Street Journal says Coors is launching a new subsidiary, AC Golden Brewing Co., to develop more higher-end beers like Blue Moon, the Belgian-style wit that's taken much of the country by storm lately (that's what the girl next to you at the bar is drinking with the big slice of orange in it).

The journal quotes an e-mail from the company to wholesalers, saying the drive stems from former CEO Pete Coors' "passion for great beer and his belief that there had to be a better -- more efficient and effective -- way for major brewers to introduce and build new brands."

This looks to me like a reaction to beer's slipping stance in the marketplace for alcoholic beverages. Craft and higher-end imports are growing, while the rest of the beer segment is losing market share to wine and liquor. All the big brewers are experimenting with new stuff, but this looks like the biggest commitment yet from a macro to higher-quality stuff.