True Story Small-Batch Stout — Where Every Batch Is a New Chapter Worth Reading

The Review

True Story’s small-batch stout changes every time they make it, which is either a frustration or a feature depending on your relationship with anticipation. The version we had in early spring was smooth, dark, and quietly excellent — the kind of stout that reveals itself over twenty minutes in a way that makes you glad you didn’t rush it.

It poured near-black with a tan head that lingered. The nose opened with roasted coffee, dark chocolate, and a faint vanilla sweetness — classic oatmeal stout territory, done well. The palate was smooth and medium-bodied, roast character building through the middle with a slight sweetness that kept it from going too dry, finishing with coffee and a clean dark chocolate note that lingered pleasantly.

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True Story’s approach — small batch, frequently rotating, brewed with the same precision you’d give a beer that was going to be on tap forever — produces stouts like this: consistently excellent in ways that are never exactly the same twice. It’s a brewery that treats each batch like a new story worth telling.

The Crestwood taproom is worth the visit for the stout alone when it’s on. Check Instagram. Worth the drive. Worth the wait.

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