Double Blue Moon

At last year's OBF, I was having a friendly conversation with a stranger who sat near me to eat his lunch. As I do with everyone, I asked him what he liked so far. He said, "I loved that Red Hook Tripel. It was like Double Blue Moon!"

Pretty funny thing for a beer geek to hear, but hopefully it means one guy will step up from Coors to Red Hook, and maybe keep going up the ladder. Ironically, Coors has now brewed a stronger version of Blue Moon, the -- let me compose my straight face -- Blue Moon Grand Cru.

I was trying to work up the courage to buy a bottle of this from Belmont Station, but at $11 for 750 ml -- SPE $31.23 -- all I could do was take a picture of the bottle on the shelf. I'm proud to say that, despite growing up in Oklahoma, my lifetime expenditure on Coors beer is less than $11. There's no way I'm going to triple or quadruple it in one shot. The Beer Advocate consensus is B-. Have any of you tried BMGC?

Confidence

A few weeks ago, when the oddly-named Stout, Microbrew, Wines and Market -- with no real microbrews in stock -- opened near 20th and Hawthorne, I stopped in immediately, hoping for an excellent bottle shop just steps from my house. It was disappointing to find that the beer selection there was not even as good as the 7-11 across the street -- really, not as good as the Safeway six blocks away.

Beermongers had just opened a couple of weeks before, so as I was chatting up the SMW&M proprietor, I asked him what he thought of Beermongers. He said, "I don't see how they're going to make it, with New Seasons just down the street from them."

Man, that just sent my head spinning. You see, SMW&M is at the NE corner of Ladd's Addition, Beermongers is at the SW corner, and New Seasons is at the SE. So, comparing Beermongers to SMW&M:

1. Distance to New Seasons: tie
   
2. Selection: Beermongers wins
   
3. Price: Beermongers wins
   
4. Distance to 7-11 and Safeway: SMW&M loses
   

I don't see how they're going to make it.