Oyster Stout

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alecoholic

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I have an old issue of BYO mag where they make an oyster stout with real oysters. Ever since I read this issue, I felt I must make an oyster stout.

Has anybody ever made one before? Any tips or cautions?
 
Boy I love good ole appalachicola, fl oysters raw and right out of the shell, but I don't know if I could make a stout out of them. I'm definitely interested in seeing a recipe for this though
 
Here is the original recipe from the magazine... I'm thinking of completely changing the grain bill by changing the specialty grains and upping the OG to 1.070, also adding more Oysters:

http://***********/stories/recipes/recipeindex/article/recipes/112-specialty-a-experimental-beer/233-black-pearl-oyster-stout
 
I don't really have any tips (but would like to try this myself later this year for a fall stout). Harpoon has a limited release (http://lovebeerlovelife.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/excuse-me-did-you-say-oyster-stout/) where they dialed back by using fresh shucked oysters in the boil (1.5/barrell). Flying Fish also does one where they add the whole oysters, unopened in the shell for 15 min during the boil (4/barrell), then remove them for snacking.

No idea on the grain bill, but Harpoon does offer 35IBU, 5.5%, OG 15 (plato?) and comments on using roasted barley and chocolate rye so the grist may be similar to the BYO recipe. (The flying Fish version was higher alcohol at 7.5% and they used irish ale yeast). But both suggest using way less oysters than the BYO article (where Katie Tame of Harpoon said using more oysters in a test batch lead to a syrupy beer).

Edit: Its been awhile since i've had oysters on the west coast and I can't remember how the salinity compared but think it might have been lower. If that were true, using a few more critters might not impact the overall taste/feel of the beer.
 
that actually looks like a decent recipe, I think I would use fresh local oysters though

I think the 1lb of roast barley is a bit much so I'm dialing that back (it has black malt and chocolate malt as well), also I do have access to fresh local oysters which also happen to be free.
 
Sampled the Moonstone Stout from Oyster House Brewing Company at Hickory Hops this year. Definitely a unique and well brewed beer. The five of us love stouts and shucking oysters. We all agreed the combination was not a pleasant experience.
I think this is a good concept though, the balance of the beer is thrown off though IMO. You have the bitter of the hops, the roasted malts and the fishiness of the oysters with no offset. Not sure what to recommend as a better beer base, maybe a brown ale?
 
I'd agree with brown ale - I'm trying to imagine a roasted stout or bitter beer but I can't wrap my head around it. Something milder and maybe even sweeter, like a brown ale, might work. I at least love brown ale with seafood like fish n' chips, which may be where I'm getting that idea from.

It also might be worth it to pick the right fresh oyster - here on the West Coast, at least, we have several species that range from sweet to downright saline. A sweeter one might not make the beer get some kind of putrid, fishy taste.
 
Sampled the Moonstone Stout from Oyster House Brewing Company at Hickory Hops this year. Definitely a unique and well brewed beer. The five of us love stouts and shucking oysters. We all agreed the combination was not a pleasant experience.
I think this is a good concept though, the balance of the beer is thrown off though IMO. You have the bitter of the hops, the roasted malts and the fishiness of the oysters with no offset. Not sure what to recommend as a better beer base, maybe a brown ale?

Do you think a 'warmer' stout (higher ABV) would help? Or that a less 'oystery' taste would have been better? I've never had any of the beers mentioned, or any other oyster stout for that matter, but comparing the technique it seems the Moonstone would have the highest addition of oysters as they claim to use 5# whole in shell per batch (1/2 barrell) in a 4.5% traditional irish stout. I know the oyster count will vary by weight, but i'd guess this would at least 5X the amount Flying Fish is using with a similar technique.
 
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