Oyster Stout

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Any advice out there on adding Oyster shells to my stout? I have found a few recipes and I know it has some to do with the water you use.
 
I've never made one, but my friend made a very good one. I believe he boiled the oysters and shells after shucking. I'm not sure about this, but I believe he added them in the last 15 minutes. I'm not sure if he did anything special to the water, though...
 
i watched an episode of drinking made easy and the brewery they visited made an oyster stout. They washed them good and threw then entire oyster shell in, unopened in the boil. They said although they didnt get oyster flavor, it did add calcium carbonate to make their water more appropriate for a stout as they had really soft water. Not sure about the chemistry side of it, but that was their approach.
 
I have a great stout recipe I put together. I saw that episode as well and it got me thinking. Apparently the calcium in the water is what gives Guinness it's characteristic, I think that is why they are putting the oysters in it. I'm just curious who has experience with this and at what point in the process they put them in. There are many different recipes that call for them at different times.
Cheers!
 
one big difference on Guinness that sets it apart from other stouts is the sour component. Ive read that up to 10% of the wort is soured and then pasteurized and added back in.
 
bucfanmike said:
one big difference on Guinness that sets it apart from other stouts is the sour component. Ive read that up to 10% of the wort is soured and then pasteurized and added back in.

That's only with the Foreign Extra Stout.
 
I can only give you advice as a drinker, not as a brewer. I've never brewed an oyster stout, though I'd like to.

First of all, the phrase "oyster stout" in commercial beers can be misleading because not all all of them contain oysters (I think Marston's Oyster Stout, which is pretty easy to come by, is just water, yeast, hops, and malt. In any case it has no oyster component). So if you're interested in the style because of something you've had in a pub or from the store, then you might want to make sure that it actually had oysters. Even if a beer has (like in the case of Marston's) a sea-themed label, it doesn't necessarily have to have oysters in it.

There is a history of brewing with oysters in beer, though. I know that Dogfish Head has done it (but I don't know when and I think it was just for a festival - I just read about this in the founder's autobiography). I think the Porterhouse, originally from Dublin and now with a location in London (which I got to a year ago) actually uses oysters in the great beer they call Oyster Stout.

I can offer even less help on the actual process side, but I would be surprised if the actual meat were left in the boil for whole minutes. This is just a hunch given the fact that they're usually eaten raw and, if cooked, just cooked for seconds. The shells, I would guess, would be another story. I would think that whatever salts/minerals would come off the shell would be the main flavor imparted from those, and it might take more time to get a serious impression from them.
 
Thanks Messersc,

I got the idea after watching an episode from Drinking Made Easy (formerly known as Three Sheets) in Ashville NC when he visited the Oyster House Brewing Co.
 
Made one back over the winter. It was our best brew to date. Came up with a good pm stout recipe then added 7 oysters and four shells in a paint strainer for the last fifteen minutes of the boil. Going to do one again once oyster season comes back to the sc coast. Will prob use a few more oysters as most of the flavor I believe was derived from the shell it was mineraly
 
I add sea salt at the beginning of the boil and then whole oysters at 15m.

So cool!! How perceptible is the difference between table salt and sea salt in beer? I've never brewed with sea salt.

Also, can you give any pointers about amounts to use? Do you need to take into account any sea salt that could be on the shells?
 
Disclaimer: I'm not a marine biologist or food scientist or anything, and I've never brewed an oyster stout. So this is just speculation from a homebrewer, professional chef, and a guy who grew up in an area where the biggest event of the year was the Urbanna Oyster Festival.

From the couple of actual oyster stouts I've had, they have a slight meaty and briny character. That's the big difference in the different varieties of oysters, the brininess. I think this is the minerally character described earlier. The levels that would be added from the oysters would depend greatly on the waters they come from (more pronounced when from cooler waters is a decent enough rule of thumb). I would add the oysters and the oyster liquor (the juice that's inside the shell) at the beginning of the boil to fully extract this quality. Oysters are generally eaten raw or through quick cooking methods to prevent them from getting too chewy, not to preserve the flavor.

I don't think that shells would really add anything except maybe a little flavor from the the adductor muscle still being attached. When you add calcium carbonate (chalk) to the liquor, how do you usually add it? In powder form, and it's still pretty had to get it to dissolve.
 
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