Review: Belgian Moon Mango Wheat Flavoured Wheat Beer

Belgian Moon Mango WheatI made a visit to my go-to LC last week to pick up beer to try and review, one of the product consultants told me to check out Molson's Belgian Moon Mango Wheat, a flavoured Wheat Beer (witbier). The beer only came in a four-pack so I didn't want to buy that many because "what if it completely sucks?" I was guaranteed that it wouldn't so I reluctantly did. Belgian Moon is the Canadian version of Blue Moon as there's another brewery in Canada that holds the rights to the name Blue Moon in Canada. I honestly feel like the Belgian Moon brand nearly completely replaced the Rickard's brand over at Molson, sure - Rickard's still exists but there's 0 innovating going on with that brand and you will likely never see a Rickard's White on tap ever again as Molson wants to promote the Belgian Moon brand instead.

Mango Wheat is brewed with "beer", ripe mango purée, natural flavour. "Contains Barley, Wheat". 5.4% ABV.
I'm already kind of cringing because of listing "beer" as the ingredient instead of listing off wheat, barley, hops, etc. like all other breweries do. Is this simply just Belgian Moon with puréed mango and "flavours" added? Who knows..

Appearance: Very cloudy ale with a bright golden straw to almost orange kind of hue to it. It looks kind of murky in the photo but it's not in person, I guess it's just from the lighting. Thick amount of off-white head that diminishes rather quickly, leaving behind a light amount of lacing on the side of the glass. The little bit of head that does remain is mostly a sprinkling here and there, concentrated mostly as close to the glass as possible.

Aroma: Wheat ale with a good deal of mango, giving off a lot of fruity sweetness to it. There's notes of your typical big brand witbier here with a good amount of wheat, possibly some coriander to give a hint of spice (the mango trumps all other flavours), notes of orange and orange peel, as well as a bit of a breadiness here and there.

Taste: I get mango in every single sip in this beer, I feel that mango is one of the most underrated fruits in beer. There's a good deal of breadiness from the wheat and Belgianesque yeast used in this beer, a bit of a dry mouthfeel from the beer, a squeeze of orange or shredded orange peel in every couple sips. A bit reminiscent of a peach ale. Aftertaste is a bit of French bread and that's about it.

Overall Thoughts: I find this beer to have a bit of an artificial vibe from it but the mango and wheat team up well together, making this a decent summer time patio beer. I don't regret buying this at all, it's beers like this that I used to buy by the pitcher back in the university days and share with friends (ha! I didn't have friends..)

What would I change about it? I don't know really.. the beer doesn't disagree with my palate at all so that's a good thing.

https://can.belgianmoon.ca/en-CA/currently-available/mango-wheat

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