Wilder's O'Fallon Night

The big question for the BC4M, is why do we do this? Early on, one of our lovely brides commented, " You guys are 'tards...who do you think is gonna read this shit?". A very keen observation and a great question, and at the time, she seemed correct. Who's gonna read the ramblings of some old men about beer. That's what Ratebeer.com and Beeradvocate.com are for. But unlike those websites, we are just a group of ordinary guys who love good beer, and like to share our thoughts in 4th grade English and with the occasional injection of a mescaline induced trip down fantasy lane. So maybe we did have something to offer the beer drinking world after all. We are now 700 beers and over 5000 internet hits later, and I still am amazed that anybody reads this shit. Not only do they read it, there have been internet visitors from as far away as Luxembourg and Korea (what, you can't get internet porn in Luxembourg? How bored are these guys that they would hunt us down for entertainment?). We tell you exactly what we think of every beer known to man, and a few that aren't. If we say it sucks, save your money cause it sucks. No one is being pretentious, we just call 'em like we see 'em. Sure, there's that little voice inside our heads that tells us this is a futile exercise, but there's also that voice that tells Bim that his cats are plotting to kill him. Thus, we don't listen to the voices in our heads (although the cats are probably trying to kill him). So we drive on, tasting beers, guiding our followers, and hopefully keeping you entertained in the process. The Great American Beer Fest is 1 week away... We will attempt to pass the 1000 mark as we drive on. And so, on this life quest, we recently had a meeting at Wilders to taste more of the Midwestern beers that Bim brought home. What follows is that tasting. For starters, we decided to test drive the entire O'Fallon line of beers. First up was 5 Day IPA (6.1%). This beer had a real nice, not over the top hoppiness. It was a unanimous good, and a great start to the meeting. Ofallon's Hemp Hop Rye (5.5%) was next. This beer advertises that they add hemp seeds to the brew, but the group thought this to be a bad idea, as the beer rated only a so/so. Craft beers and dope smokers are an unnatural pairing. Smoke (6%) was up next. This was a smoked porter that supposedly won a medal in the GABF in 2004, but we didn't get it at all. Tasted like liquid smoke and rated a so/so. Weach (4.75%) was their combination of wheat beer and peaches, an odd combination that worked about as well as a peanut butter and bacon sandwich... so/so. Cherry Chocolate Beer (5.7%) smelled like a box of Esther Price Cherry Chocolates, not beer, and thus rated another so/so. Luckily, we ran out of O'Fallons's, so it was on to the Dark Horse Brewing Co.'s Double Crooked Tree IPA (6.0%). This beer had a very cool bottle, and while the taste was a little sweet, it managed a good. Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Blackout Stout (9%) had a strong coffee flavor, and rated a good. Then came the Quaff Brother's Nola's Rye Single Barrel Ale (9%). This was a tough one to rate, as none of us had ever tasted a "cough syrup" style of beer. After drinking this, our heads were spinning like David after Dentist. So/so was a generous rating. Flying Dog Kerberos Tripel (8.5%) was a high alcohol beer that didn't merit a comment, but was voted a good. Jumping Cow Amber Ale (5.5%) is a Trader Joes beer. These beers are all contract brewed, but they choose some great breweries to brew them. This beer is brewed by Firestone Walker, and was a nice session beer. Then it was back to Ohio with a Brew Kettle Red Eye PA. The hops were over the top, and the group thought it should have been better balanced, but it still garnered a good. We ended the night with 2 Berghoff Beers, Prairie Lager and Heartland Heffeweizen. The lager was a so/so, enjoyed by the Coors Light lovers in the group, but rather tasteless to the rest of us. In contrast, the heffeweisen, despite the fact that we don't generally like these, rated a solid good. And just like that, 13 beers were gone, and it was meeting adjourned.