O’so Brewing Company - Convenient Distraction

O’so Brewing’s Convenient Distraction is a delicious imperial porter that shows exceptional, well-roasted coffee character through its additions of Ruby Roasters coffee and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. The base porter is deliciously appointed with chocolate and darker specialty malts, and this is exceptionally well handled throughout, packed with lush flavors. O’so’s imperial porter sees a very limited distribution in select Wisconsin markets only.

Convenient Distraction pours a dark, chocolate-brown color capped by a creamy tan foam. The latter’s nicely retained with mousse-like texture, and lacing that coats the interior of the glass. Robust, roasted coffee and darker specialty-malt character lead things in the aromatics, emphasizing baker’s chocolate, milk chocolate, and licorice. Smoothing notes of vanilla and subtle caramel keep everything on point throughout. Generous aromatics from the start.

A satisfying, full-bodied impact from that imperial-porter base, with the full package landing firmly roasted but smooth and seamless courtesy of the vanilla beans. Various milk and dark chocolate elements in abundance, and that core porter definitely feels plush on the palate. A subtle, vinous warmth from the near-10% ABV keeps this seeming lean overall, with a touch of vibrant red fruit. Despite the exceptional imperial porter framework, those Ruby Roasters coffee beans prove to be a standout element here: nothing green nor harsh—just satisfying, medium-roast, chocolatey coffee notes all throughout the aromatics and flavors of this one.

A truly standout coffee beer, with an incredible imperial porter underpinning things. Those Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans bring everything with even a bit of an edge—the baker’s chocolate and cocoa notes, the roasted malts and coffee—into effortless focus throughout.

This batch of Convenient Distraction is drinking great right now. The coffee character and aromatic intensity might fade a bit with time, but this also has the high ABV and sturdiness for some modest cellaring. For pairings: the combo of chocolate, vanilla, and coffee have us looking towards a wide range of desserts: tiramisu, affogato, flourless chocolate cake…

O’so Brewing Company , in the small village of Plover, Wisconsin, has quietly become one of the very best breweries in the state—and we’re pumped to be able to offer up a very special limited release from O’so this month brewed with Madagascar vanilla beans and Ruby Roasters coffee from Nelsonville, Wisconsin. O’so was founded in 2007 by husband-and-wife team Marc and Katina Buttera, who both grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Quick geography lesson: Kenosha’s basically in the very southeast corner of the state, along the shores of Lake Michigan, while Plover couldn’t be more in Wisconsin’s exact center.) It took a whole lot of steps in-between to get O’so Brewing Co. running, as Marc and Katina raised two young children while working and going to school (which is pretty badass, let’s be real). Marc earned a degree in mechanical design and Katina earned hers in accounting, and, after establishing their careers and even moving their family away to Tennessee (for Marc to take a promotion at the foundry he worked for), they realized that something was missing.

As these stories often go: homebrewing soon changed everything. After moving back to the middle of Wisconsin, the couple opened up Point Brew Supply (a beer- and winemaking supply shop) as a side project, which gradually transitioned into a five-year plan to also open O’so Brewing, which they founded in 2007. In the period since, both entities have grown in leaps and bounds. O’so has been one of the fastest growing breweries in the state; their year-round The Big O wheat ale won gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2015, and their hoppy and sour releases, especially, have made them one of the most influential breweries in Wisconsin.

Some of our Rare Beer Club members will remember O’so’s Space Ace Oddity, a delicious white IPA brewed with Sorachi Ace, Nugget, and Galaxy hops, and bottle-conditioned with Brettanomyces, which we featured in the club some years back. We were also lucky enough to get a club-exclusive version of Project LO, a sour blonde ale aged in oak barrels and dry-hopped with Huell Melon. This month: we’ve secured a delicious offering from O’so called Convenient Distraction: an imperial porter brewed with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans and locally made Ruby Roasters coffee. We think the base porter and that duo of coffee and vanilla just works so beautifully in this beer—one of the best beers from O’so to date.

Should you happen to find yourself anywhere near the center of Wisconsin, O’so Brewing’s Taphouse offers up an extensive selection of the brewery’s beers, ranging from kettle sours and barrel-aged sours to a gamut of hops to some maltier things on nitro—with 30+ beers total at any given time. Tours have typically been offered on Saturdays and cost $5 for adults, which gets you a token to be redeemed for any current O’so beer after the tour. For more info on O’so, upcoming events, and more, visit www.osobrewing.com.