More Bottles From VA Brewers

Many craft breweries start out by distributing their beers in kegs to local restaurants and pubs. As word spreads, folks beyond the local area start clamoring for the beers as well. And that's when bottles, or cans, come in to play. In recent months more Virginia breweries have been expanding their production and shipping out bottles for consumers to take home and enjoy. Not long after expanding their distribution around the state, Devils Backbone began shipping its Eight Point IPA and Vienna Lager to stores.

Less widely known Virginia breweries are getting into the act as well. Norfolk's O'Connor Brewing was featured in a Virginian-Pilot article today.

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Kevin O'Connor has begun bottling his brew.

Local supermarkets and stores this week started selling beer produced by O'Connor Brewing Co., a 2-year-old Norfolk brewery. Until now, O'Connor beer had been available mostly on tap in restaurants and bars.  

"The six-packs are selling fast," said John Bovie, store director of Farm Fresh at Ghent in Norfolk, which started carrying them Tuesday. 

Other stores that began featuring O'Connor beer Tuesday include Total Wine & More in Norfolk and Grape & Gourmet in Virginia Beach. "I've been hearing people ask about it every day, usually multiple times a day," Kate Bates, assistant manager at Total Wine, said Wednesday.

Congratulations to Kevin and crew. Unfortunately I've not been able to try the O'Connor beers, nor the ones from Beach Brewing, also mentioned in the article. But I will be on the lookout in stores the next time I visit the Tidewater area.

See "Norfolk's O'Connor Brewing introduces bottled beer" for the complete article.