O’so Brewing Company helps veterans one beer at a time

Rich Palzewic

Staff

October 14, 2024

PLOVER – Piggybacking on his promise to give back to the community, Marc Buttera, co-owner of O’so Brewing Company (1800 Plover Road) in Plover, said he uses his platform to do so.

“My wife, Katina, and I have been at this since 2007,” he said. “We’ve always felt it was our duty to give back to the community.”

One of those ways, Buttera said, is from the proceeds of one of its beers.

“It’s called the Never Forgotten Lager,” he said. “A portion of the sales from each beer sold helps send deserving vets on the Honor Flight. Over the last three years, we have raised nearly $45,000, and we are growing this every year. We take $2 of each case sold and give it to the local honor flight in each county, along with $14 per half barrel.”

Buttera said he grew up with a family member who was a Vietnam veteran, so that was the inspiration behind the Never Forgotten Lager.

“I tried to go into the military myself, but I couldn’t,” he said. “They wouldn’t take me because I had a collapsed lung at 17, but it’s always been a passion to me. I would have been a warrior – I’m just that kind of guy.”

After opening the taproom at its current location, Buttera said more veterans began showing up.

“I really wanted to do something to honor them,” he said. “We started working with Jim Campbell at the Never Forgotten Honor Flight in Wausau. I was a Never Forgotten Honor Flight Guardian in May – it was an awesome experience. A lot of these guys didn’t get a real warm welcome coming back – especially the Vietnam vets – so I think it’s pretty awesome. On the Honor Flight, we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (in Washington D.C.) – that was a real tear-jerker.”

Buttera said by giving back, he is doing his part in “moving the needle for helping people out.”

“It’s always been our philosophy, and it always will be,” he said. “It’s a recipe for success – if you give to other people, you’re going to get it back. We’ve always gotten it back, even more than we’ve given.”

In addition to supporting a good cause, Buttera said people love the beer.

“They buy some of it for their grandpa or dad,” he said. “It’s an easy-drinking kind of beer.”

Putting a big-box store to use

Because Buttera said the brewing company “was in a lease that was killing us” at a prior location, in 2021, O’so moved into the former Shopko building in Plover.

“It’s 32,000 square feet,” he said. “After renovations, it has a brewery, taproom, kitchen, private event space, games and a brew supply shop. We had a developer who was putting a bid in on the Shopko building, and he said, ‘hey, if I bid on this thing, would you guys be willing to go in there?’ I told him the only way I would do that was if we had ownership.”

Buttera said because they bought the building during the COVID-19 pandemic, “we got a good deal.”

“This is O’so Brewing Company’s forever home,” he laughed. “We made the deal in December of 2019, and then COVID hit a quarter later. I was thinking to myself, ‘what have I done now?’ But we pushed forward and did all the work ourselves.”

Buttera said he, his two sons, his wife and all the employees worked hard to get O’so Brewing to where it is at now.

Because the craft beer industry is changing, he said “we needed a whole lot more space.”

“Now it’s all about doing events, bringing as many people in, making as much revenue inside your walls as possible, etc.,” he said. “So we’ve changed our model. We put a pizzeria in – we make everything from scratch – and then we do wedding receptions and big gatherings. It’s Plover’s gathering place. We can bring 500 people in here.”

Buttera said since moving into its current location, “things have been going really well.”

Though O’so Brewing still distributes, Buttera said “You can’t rely on it anymore – that’s for big breweries, and we’re not a big brewery.”

“We have to make creative ways to get people in the door and get them to keep coming back,” he said. “You always have to be innovative and try to find the next thing.”

Part of that effort, Buttra said, included starting a sister company inside the walls of O’so Brewing called Meaningful Brewing.

“It’s a gluten-free line of beers,” he said. “We know how to brew beer, but we didn’t know how to brew gluten-free beers – it’s completely different. We launched that earlier this year, and that’s going really well. We’re getting into Whole Foods right now. There weren’t hardly any gluten-free beers out there.”

As for the pizzeria, Buttera said, “it looks like a food truck painted on the wall.”

“You walk up to the window and order your food,” he said. “We were runner-up for best pizza in Portage County this year, which was great. Bill’s Pizza Shop – they’ve been around for 50 years – won, so second place isn’t too bad. Maybe next year we’ll get them.”

A traditional start

Like so many other brewery stories, Buttera said his start in the industry started in a traditional way – as a homebrewer.

“My neighbor was president of the brew club, and I was pursuing engineering in college,” he said. “He showed me how to make beer – I was enamored with how things worked.”

Though he was intrigued with the art of crafting beer, Buttera said he initially took a different career path.

“One day, I was in the cubicle at work, and I said, ‘Man, this is for the birds – I want to do my own business,’” he said. “That’s how O’so got its start. We had a five-year plan (to get things up and running), and we did it in four. I had a really good job at Waupaca Foundry as an engineer and left. That was right around the major economic recession, so things were a bit rough back then.”

Different brews

Buttera said he does most of the recipe development “for the hundreds of beers O’so” has put out over the years.

“We’ve got about 38 brews on tap (currently) – it’s whatever the consumer wants,” he said. “We like to play around with new flavors or when a new style comes around. My son Danny will eventually take over the business, and he says to me, ‘Dad, you’re going to have to stay on for recipe development.’”

Buttera said the most popular O’so beers include Night Rain Porter, Haze Positive and Never Forgotten Lager.

“The water in this area makes really great dark beers,” he said. “We also have seasonal brews we mix in as well. There was a time when places were doing all these crazy beers. I’ve seen people put cereal in beer – Cocoa Puffs – and all this different, goofy stuff. Everything has been done, but I think brewing companies are kind of going back to just regular drinking beers.”

Other O’so beers include Infectious Groove, Buck in Rut (seasonal), Bring me the Disco King and Hop Snack.

Another special brew

Buttera said Plover native and former National Hockey League (NHL) star, Joe Pavelski, is the inspiration behind O’so Brewing Company’s latest beer – Pavelski Pils.

Pavelski played 18 seasons for the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars but recently retired.

After helping Stevens Point Area Senior High win a hockey state championship in 2002, Pavelski attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison before embarking on his NHL career.

In 1,332 career NHL regular-season games, Pavelski amassed 476 goals and 592 assists.

“When we announced our release of Pavelski Pils, it immediately got like 45 shares and 200-plus comments on Facebook,” Buttera said. “I worked with him and his parents, and we developed a really cool label for it. It’s got like Badger red and white because he played at Wisconsin. Because we’re always trying to tie our beers into a charity thing, with Pavelski Pils, we’ll be donating to Plover Whiting Youth Athletics. I think this one is going to be a monster for us.”

Buttera said Pavelski’s career NHL stats are printed on the can’s label.

“I’m hoping to get Joe to the brewery – he lives in Madison now,” he said. “He grew up two blocks away from the brewery, so I’m hoping we can get him here and do a little fundraiser thing where maybe he can sign autographs or something.”

With Camp Randall – the home of the Badgers football team – being able to sell beer for the first time ever, Buttera said, “it would be sweet if (Pavelski Pils) makes it there someday.”

“For now, we’ll be in the Kohl Center (where the Badgers play basketball),” he said. “We’re making 16-ounce cans for the Kohl Center, so we’re really excited about that. That’s the tough part about distribution. These big distributors, they’ve got certain beers they need to move volume on, so bigger venues are usually accounts that are targeted.”

What’s in a name

Buttera said the inspiration behind the name – O’so Brewing Company – was more of a marketing thing – “but it’s been great.”

“It tastes O’so good, it’s O’so malty and it’s O’so hoppy,” he said. “My last name is Buttera, and it gets butchered a lot (when people try to pronounce it), so I didn’t want to use that in the name.”

Buttera said the O’so name has been part of the brewery’s success.

“It’s one of those things that’s stuck for 17 years,” he said.

For more information on O’so Brewing Company, head to its Facebook page or website (osobrewing.com).