A sixpack of freestyle: O'so Brewing

I picked up a six pack from this eccentric Wisconsin brewery.  I've mentioned before my love for such things.  There is nothing that fills me with as much hope and joy as the thought of a barely-contained maniac standing over a brewpot with a handful of obscure ingredients and a gleam in his eye.  O'so seems to have that same love.  The self-proclaimed 'freestyle brewer' invites the world to 'join the fight against boring beer'.  This is a motto they hold quite well, all of their beers have a little something extra.  A strange, texture or a different flavor that keeps the beer snob on her toes.  

One thing that I found endlessly entertaining was the fact that they put descriptions of their beer on their labels.  They were, for the most part, a little grandiose, but one would not expect much less.  I had a bit of fun with them and they are reprinted in italics.

Night Train Roasty Chewy Robust Judicious Cream Bold Complex Immense: Lots of roasted coffee and chocolate with maybe a hint of cherry on the aroma.    This is one of those beers where you have to run to keep up with the flavors that are running across your tongue.  I picked up the aforementioned coffee and chocolate, cherry, vanilla and so on.  It all takes place on a kind of bitter background of roasted barley.  Very nice dark beer.

Hopdinger: Pungent Hoppy Crisp Floral Bitter Piney Resinous Engaging:  Yep, that's pretty much the available lexicon when it comes to IPA's... except maybe engaging.  Not sure if I've ever labeled a beer engaging... I mean ALL beer is engaging, I suppose.  Anyway I pick up a little bit of pine and citrus on the nose.  Lots more citrus on the palate with a kind of astringent herbal flavor just behind it.  It's not an overwhelming IPA the citrus, floral and herbal qualities are intense but they are not overly bitter.

The Big O, Zippy Crisp Tangy Luminous Subtle Unique Sunny Jubilant: This has a very light malty aroma.  Kind of a lemony pilsners.  It's got a little bit of body and starts with a sweet malt that's... kinda pushed aside by a hint of lemongrass.  Nice, light, refreshing but not without an interesting nuance.

DANK Imperial Red Ale.  Wonderful brown sugar cherry caramel aroma.  Not the malt bomb I kinda assumed it would be.  The above flavors are more or less tempered with a coffee and unsweetened chocolate bitterness.  The cherry peeks through a little more then the other flavors and there's some slight astringent hops character in there as well.

Memory Lane: A special pilsner brewed to raise money for Alzheimer's research.  Light grassy aroma.  O'so brewing proves they have, not only the will, but the ability to put their own unique spin on every style, though in this case I'm not sure it's a good one.  There is a very intense, lemony sour flavor.  It wasn't unlike another German beer from Wisconsin.  This wasn't as pleasant, though. 

Dominator Dopplebock:  Wonderful chocolate cherry aroma with maybe a hint of charcoal.  The flavor starts sweet with that chocolate cherry flavor.  Some bitter pine and woody flavors arrive a little later and help temper the malt and blend together nicely leaving a crisp, slightly dry aftertaste.