It was a tough sell to corporate higher-ups back in 1995 when Villa first pitched the idea of creating an American beer brand around the Belgian witbier style. Red ales and red lagers were the current rage, and in the days before the term “craft” became a thing, microbreweries tended to focus more on English beer styles and red/amber ales and lagers. But Villa had fallen in love with witbier while pursuing his PhD in Belgium, and through sheer force of will convinced the execs to fund his foray into this (then-strange) style.
“Back then in 1995, [American beer drinkers] were just not familiar with the richness of styles in Belgium,” says Villa. “I thought we could use Blue Moon to introduce people to Belgian-style beers, and we started with Belgian White.” But a historically accurate wit was not what he had in mind. Sure, tradition matters, but tradition is only tradition because it appealed to the palates of local drinkers. For the beer to be palatable to American drinkers, it had to be less bitter and more familiar.
“I wanted to make sure that people liked it from the start, and a true Belgian wit was a bit more bitter than people were used to. But I wanted something that had what I called ‘first sip likeability,’” says Villa. “A true-to-style Belgian wit can be 16–18 IBUs, and while that’s in balance, it would have been a bit much for the typical palate in the 1990s.”