Oyster Smoked Stout

Type: All Grain
Date: 3/1/2009
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Brewer: Reverend JC
Boil Size: 12.04 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: My Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 39.46 %
5 lbs 8.0 oz Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 24.11 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 12.06 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 12.06 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.38 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.38 %
10.9 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 2.98 %
2.1 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 0.57 %
1.00 oz Challenger [6.30 %] (60 min) Hops 10.8 IBU
3.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.63 %] (60 min) Hops 23.8 IBU
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.63 %] (20 min) Hops 7.2 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Misc
16.00 oz Canned Oysters (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) [Starter 1400 ml] Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.73 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 41.8 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 48.2 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body Total Grain Weight: 22.81 lb
Sparge Water: 3.66 gal Grain Temperature: 66.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 28.52 qt of water at 164.5 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 15.97 qt of water at 200.7 F 168.0 F


We shall see in about 8 weeks!

I can't wait to hear about this one. Where did you get the idea?

Oyster stouts have been out there for a while. I had one at The Porterhouse in Dublin when I was there in 06. It was a good beer, really good body, but no oyster flavor to speak of. If I didn't know the oysters were there, I never would have guessed.

Home smoked malt?

I have found the Weyerman's doesn't come through that well. I used 5lbs/5 gallons in a smoked stout and the smoke it quite prominent, but no where near overpowering. I would think 1lb/5 gallons isn't going to do that much.

Hopaholic said:

Oyster stouts have been out there for a while. I had one at The Porterhouse in Dublin when I was there in 06. It was a good beer, really good body, but no oyster flavor to speak of. If I didn't know the oysters were there, I never would have guessed.

Click to expand...

Oyster stouts don't always have oysters in them--I'd venture to say that more don't than do, though there are still some out there that use them.

Wikipedia says:
"The first known use of oysters as part of the brewing process of stout was in 1929 in New Zealand, followed by the Hammerton Brewery in London, UK, in 1938. Several British brewers used oysters in stouts during the "nourishing stout" and "milk stout" period just after the second world war.

Modern oyster stouts may be made with a handful of oysters in the barrel or, as with Marston's Oyster Stout, just use the name with the implication that the beer would be suitable for drinking with oysters."

From what I was told when 21st Amendment made their oyster stout, it uses the shells for a source of calcium and other minerals in the shell. What you do is get a pound of fresh oysters, shuck them over the pot and eat the oyster and toss the shell into the boil. It was a historic use to get the nutrients from the shell. If you add oysters then you will end up with a more fishy tasting and less minerally and salty stout.

I wouldn't add the meat, just the shell.

This was an adaptation from the "Black Pearl Oyster Stout" recipe in BYO a while ago. The oyster meat will add no "fishy" flavor but is supposed to impart a slight briney character to the finished beer. And of course, a little rauchmalt is always good.

I didn't mean fishy, sorry, more protein and meaty flavored. I say fishy because you will get that oyster meat flavor. If you just use the shell there is more of that briny flavor. I still wouldn't add the meat, but if you do let us know how it goes. I tried the 21A Oyster Stout after they made it and it was delicious. Roasty yet salty/briney.

Hog Island Oyster Company will cost you a small mint, but plan a big party and sit down for a lovely oyster fest! Then save all of the shells, give them a quick scrub and make yourself some oyster stout.

Nope, made it yesterday and added meat. It was what the recipe called for. We shall see. It was very odd looking watching those little oysters surface and then dive back down during the boil.

I've had the one in the Porterhouse in Dublin as another poster mentioned, there are fresh oysters dumped into it according to the menu blurb that goes with them.
I find there is a bit of a briney salty thing going on with it, I'd not be a big fan myself , but others rave about it.

I just had an oyster stout at the Porter House in London last week.

What an amazing beer. It doesn't taste fishy, or even briny really. It just imparts this wonderful extra little taste that I doubt most people would be able to identify without a hint or two.

I'd be interested to know how this turns out!

chumprock said:

I just had an oyster stout at the Porter House in London last week.

What an amazing beer. It doesn't taste fishy, or even briny really. It just imparts this wonderful extra little taste that I doubt most people would be able to identify without a hint or two.

I'd be interested to know how this turns out!

Click to expand...

It adds a certain something that you wouldn't be inclined to recognise that is true, but it's vaguely briney I found myself.

Sweet! Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

ohiobrewtus said:

Sweet! Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

Click to expand...

Ohhh, you will be getting one.

chumprock said:

I just had an oyster stout at the Porter House in London last week.

What an amazing beer. It doesn't taste fishy, or even briny really. It just imparts this wonderful extra little taste that I doubt most people would be able to identify without a hint or two.

I'd be interested to know how this turns out!

Click to expand...

I just went to their website to see if they had any info on the beer, and boy do they ever! Almost a recipe.

Oyster

Alcohol by volume: 4.8%

Grain: Pale Malt, Roast Barley, Black Malt, Flaked Barley.

Hops: Galena, Nugget, East Kent Goldings.

Brewed with fresh oyster. A smooth drinking aromatic stout with a discernible but unidentifiable aromatic aspect. Not suitable for vegetarians.

Click to expand...

well, learn something new everyday. I must have been slightly misinformed then.

Would love to know how this turned out. I'm feeling inspired

As a geologist, I would not expect much mineralized calcium carbonate would be imparted to the beer by boiling oyster shells in it. A lot of the assertions I have read here sound more like marketing hype down through the decades.

I can say that having read The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky, about the history of the Hudson River/NYC oystery, the largest and the most prolific in the world, I would think that oysters were added TO the beer much earlier than the 1930's.

The Thames estuary was also a huge prolific oystery providing oysters to London as the poor man's meat for centuries before sewage killed it off. NYC oysters were being imported to Britain and France in the 1800's due to the decreasing availability. The NYC middens, ancient oyster shell heaps started by the Native Americans and added to by the colonists, show, by digging down to the lower levels, that oysters weighing up to 4 pounds(!!) were at one time harvested by the indians. Can you imagine a oyster as big as four 16 ounce steaks? Anyway, oysters are what the colonists in N England and the poor in London survived on.

Food for thought, uncooked oysters can be a transmitter of typhoid since they cand live, eat and breath in water contaminated with typhoid infected sewage. They were responsible for outbreaks in NYC back in the day.

Oysters were shipped nationwide in wooden barrels, salted and fresh in the 1800's and you could get oysters on the menu in places like St. Louie, Dodge City and Denver (real oysters, not the Rocky Mt. type...lol).

My point is, oysters were so cheap and plentiful and were considered poor man's food, I don't find it hard to believe that some enterprising brewer fortified his brew with oysters. After all remember the American working man's practice of adding a raw egg to his morning or lunch time beer?

Here is something that makes sense and would not be so wasteful of a fine tasting seafood. In the description of the Harpoon Oyster Stout they say that originally in New Zealand, shelled oysters were boiled, as in cooked in the boiling wort, thereby opening the shells for consumption, and releasing the oyster liquor into the wort. This would allow the brewers to eat the wort flavored oysters while adding a certain something to the wort in the form of the protein rich oyster liquor. This technique is something easily replicated at home with shelled oysters and a wire steaming or boiling basket. Very similar to steaming or boiling clams. Just dunk them in the boiling wort until the invertebrates die a hideous death and are ready for consumption.