BC4M meets the "ass monkey"

One of the up and coming young breweries in the area that the BC4M calls home (also known to craft beer fanatics as the "Beermuda Triangle" for its dearth of available micro beer) is O'Connor Brewing. We initially got a taste of their first three brews early last year while at the Norfolk Beer Festival and came away thinking they were decent and at least drinkable but certainly nothing spectacular. Regardless, we are hoping for their continued success and perhaps one day they will be making that next craft beer "whale" ala Black Tuesday or Surly Darkness that will cause hop heads from all over to willingly come stand in line for hours on end for the chance to get a bottle while simultaneously having to fight off both staph infections and dysentery from that group of "herbalists" you're likely to see camped out with you like at a Foothill's Brewing Sexual Chocolate release party. Recently the boys at O'Connor tweeted that they were tapping a firkin of their ODIS (O'Connor Dry Irish Stout, 5.0%)  but infused with vanilla, cocoa and coffee at one of the newer eateries in downtown Norfolk, The Public House. While checking out the menu online, Fred noticed that the place had lots of "rules" that seemed to suggest the joint was going to be a bit pretentious, but maybe thats exactly how the trendy young hipsters that frequent the area like to be seen as. The description of their tap list reads, "We change our beers often. So often, in fact, that our lazy marketing guy recommended that we just tell you to check our chalkboard each day for the list of beers we're currently serving".  Despite arriving to see what appeared to be over 30 available taps, the paltry list written on the chalkboard contained no more than 10 beers, most of which were easily forgettable. Also, they have a "rule" against ordering a drink "strong" since that somehow questions the integrity of the bar staff and that "our staff's 100+ years of combined experience trumps your brief stint slinging "rocket fuel" in your frat house basement". Coincidentally, both Bim and D-Rail were heading downtown as "chaperones" for a Jonas Brothers concert that night, so despite the supposedly "tongue in cheek" rules the Public House has on behavior, we decided to meet up for a few beers prior to the show. Nestle Goodbody arrived first and grabbed a spot at the bar and bought the first round when we arrived. Sitting next to her was perhaps the highlight of the night, a prim and proper douche canoe that explained to her that "he got paid to drink beer for a living" but "wasn't at liberty" to tell us whom he worked for. After about 2 minutes of him speaking to us with utter disdain as if we were ignorant hacks on subjects like proper smelling techniques and how to quaff a beer expertly, the boys in the BC4M were about to shove a broken PBR bottle up his ass to shut him the fuck up. Thankfully the O'Connor ODIS was more palatable than that jackwad blue blood so we turned our attention to drinking the dark as night stout fresh from the firkin. The regular version is easily a nice change of pace from say the most famous dry stout, Guinness, but this special version was much more coffee than vanilla or cocoa. In fact, no one even got a hint of either vanilla or cocoa and everybody universally agreed that there wasn't any balance between the three added ingredients. "Tastes like a cold cup of Nescafe, a bad cup" said Bim, while Fred, who loves the coffee stouts added, "Thin and watery, but not all that great". It was about this time that Johnny Wilder had arrived and we watched him spend the next 30 minutes performing a surgically precise mind fucking on our "beer expert" that caused the poor lad to eventually admit he worked for of all places,  St George's Brewing. Frankly, we think their beers suck but obviously somebody out there likes their product but it sure as fuck isn't us. After he realized it was late (almost 8:30 by then) he rushed out so he could get home to his wet nurse training lessons, so we moved on to an O'Connor Great Dismal Black IPA (7.5%). This is probably the best beer they make right now, and it is delicious with an excellent balance of subtle sweetness and hoppy bite. "This shit is damn good" said Fred, while we all agreed it would make a great session beer for the kegerator. A really good, before we left, we decided to give an official rating to another of their newer beers, the O'Connor El Guapo IPA. Wilder, Fred and Nestle had been at the release party for El Guapo earlier in the year at one of the best pizzerias in the area, Cogan's. Brewed with agave, the sweetness in the beer isn't pronounced but it is a decent session IPA that is a welcome addition to the area. It suffers from a lack of overt hop bite or smell but would make a good transition beer from pale ales to the more aromatic IPA's like those from Alpine Brewing in California. This one rated a good and with some tweaks to the recipe, could easily be made into a really good. Since we had already exhausted the Public House's tap list, we decided to end the night with a delicuous spicy meatzilla pizza at Cogan's while D-Rail and Bim went off to see their show. Until next time, remember kids, never feed the ass monkey, you never know where but you always know they will end up trying to shit on you.....