CHRIS DROSNER
For the State Journal
For good reason, the bourbon barrel stout is the apex predator of the craft beer world. Itâs rich and bold, at once complex and utterly unsubtle.
Every brewery knows the cachet these dark dandies have with beer geeks, and many breweries make them. Nearly all are pretty good â the combination of stoutâs chocolate-coffee-dark-fruit and bourbonâs oaky vanilla just works â but remarkably few are great.
A new barrel-aged stout from Oâso Brewing of Plover just joined that latter group.
This should-be hit, called Narcissist, comes just ahead of a major turning point for Oâso. Owners Marc and Katina Buttera have been working to open a new brewery for years, with one setback after another delaying or scuttling plans. Marc Buttera once told me hoped to break ground in 2016 on a new brewery and taproom. That was in 2014.