blue-moon-bottleDuring a White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs fielded questions about what kind of beer President Barack Obama will be drinking when he sits down with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police Sergeant James Crowley to broker peace following their recent confrontation that resulted in an arrest, making national headlines and stoking conversations on race.

An unidentified reporter asked, “OK. And another subject, Officer Crowley is drinking Blue Moon. We hear Professor Gates is drinking Red Stripe or Becks–what’s the president drinking?”

Gibbs: “The president had a Budweiser at the All-Star Game, so–why are you looking at me like that? That’s what he drank.”

Reporter: “We’re talking Blue Moon, Red Stripe, Becks…”

Gibbs: “What’s wrong with Budweiser? Why do you hate Budweiser?”

Laughter ensued in the press gallery.

Of course, Blue Moon is a Colorado beer, owned by the Coors Brewing Co. of Golden, notes the Denver Business Journal, giving the state a trivial role in the presidential meeting. The New York Daily News notes that Crowley was drinking beer at a pub on Friday when he received the invitation from Obama to visit the White House.