Oyster stout

Anyone had one? How was it? We were at a gathering the other night and we started talking about stouts. I brought up the oyster stout and everyone thought I was nuts/sounded disgusting. So I want to make some to see how it tastes. Maybe a 2.5gal brew. Any good recipes floating around?

Is it a brand or "flavor" or beer. Never heard of either. Don't think i would be at all interested in an oyster flavored beer. Sounds yucky

I think I just vomited into my mouth a little.

Yes, they are (were?) actually stouts brewed with oysters. As I despise oysters, it sounds like an absolutely disgusting idea to me. However, others seem to have enjoyed them.

Yards Brewing up to a point in time used oysters in their Love Stout and it was good stuff.

sorry, but... vile.

oberon567 said:

sorry, but... vile.

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Don't knock it 'tll you try it....At least in the Yards example you didn't taste "oysters" and if no one told you, you'd never guess they were used. IIRC, there was a nice subtle smokey and light briney influence on the flavor that worked well with the stout profile.

Recipe from BYO:
http://byo.com/recipe/1329.html

See this thread for the reason the above posts have been deleted.

On topic snippets from the deleted posts:

Cugel said:

An Irish brewery makes oyster stout with real oysters involved in the process. It's meant to be very good stuff.

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oberon567 said:

Dogfish Head brews an Oyster Stout with real oysters, available only on tap. Reviews: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/64/13185 . Most poeple enjoyed it but said it was nothing astounding, a meidum body, salty stout.

Marston's also brews an Oyster Stout with real oysters, and that is available in bottles as well as tap. Wasnt reviewed quite as well as the DFH: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/427/1274

I know that Rogue also brews one, but couldnt find more info on it.

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I've heard of oyster stout but never tried it. It's probably not bad (I'll eat or drink pretty much anything).

I've read some very old beer recipes that called for meat in the brew, I think it was supposed to add nutrients and/or protein. That was back in the days when beer was like liquid food for people.

Maybe bacon or beef jerky brew? That's good drinkin'!

Thanks for the replys, been so busy forgot to check my thread. Anyways, I seem to have gotten the same responce here as I got at the dinner table the other day. I def. want to try one if I can find a smaller vessle to ferment it in as im not sure I want to make 5 gals of it. I don't think the taste of the Oyster would come through like many would think, I think it would be a very slight taste, maybe a tad salty depending on how much Oyster product you used. Ill brew some up and give it to my buddys as my "House Stout" and see how they like it before they find out it was brewed with oysters. I think I will try and brew BYO recipe, their description sounds good enough to me

I think there's a recipe in the Radical Brewing book. You should check that out.

Make sure your friends don't have shellfish allergies before you give it to them.

The Porterhouse in Dublin does an oyster stout. It's supposedly a traditional Irish Recipe. Not bad. Doesn't taste of Oysters to me, but my friend insists he can taste it really strongly. Must be different taste buds.

Did you brew this beer yet? I have a weird rye stout in the queue, and am thinking of doing a small beer with. Need a brain to pick.

Historically, at its onset there were never any oysters in oyster stout back when the name originated (to celebrate an oyster festival). Only much later did someone who completely misunderstood the history actually attempt to put oysters into their stout.

Also, at one time ground oyster shells were a natural source for calcium carbonate, which was used both to neutralize dark roasted malt acidity, and as a filtrate media for beer clarification. It was the shells that were utilized in a practical manner, and not the meat.

Similarly, I'm not sure if the original oatmeal stouts actually had oatmeal in them.

We did 50 gallons of Oyster Stout for a club brew day. We added a hop basket full of fresh shells from the oysters we ate during the boil @ 10 minutes along with 6-8 whole fresh oysters.
I split my 6 gal of wort into two 3 gal portions and fermented half with US-05 & half with O4.
Both turned out very well. Good stout roasted flavors with just a bit of brine in the background. I’ve been enjoying them both and will miss having them on tap soon!

If I'm not mistaken , Guinness uses some sort of fish in their process, I want to think its anchovies. I think for clarification.

Soulshine2 said:

If I'm not mistaken , Guinness uses some sort of fish in their process, I want to think its anchovies. I think for clarification.

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I believe they add a few percent rancid Guinness to each batch.

+1 for Oyster stouts. I too was in the "That's Gross" camp. Until i tried one. As others have state the salt flavors from the oysters mix well with the sweet malts of the stout. Think about salted chocolates or caramels. Not a combo that most people thought worked until they tried it.

Silver_Is_Money said:

Similarly, I'm not sure if the original oatmeal stouts actually had oatmeal in them.

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Yes they did - they were the subject of a bit of a patent fight in the 1890s between Rose & Wilson of Yorkshire who seem to have been the first to patent the idea, and Maclays of Alloa who sort-of lost the legal battle but ended up being the ones to make a success of oatmeal stout - see eg here.

They then got a bit of a bad name because London brewers between the wars felt they had to have an oatmeal stout in their lineup, so they would put 0.5% oats in their regular stout and market the same beer as stout and as oatmeal stout.

There seems to be a bit of a divide, British brewers, at least the traditional ones, sell oyster stout to be drunk with oysters (eg the Marston one) whereas US brewers make oyster stout brewed with oysters in the brew. British brewers have started doing it a bit now, but the original oyster stouts did not contain oysters.

Many brewers use eisenglas/isinglass for fining - it's a form of collagen from fish swim bladders, typically part of the waste products from cod these days. IIRC Guinness gave it up last year, so they could claim to be vegan.

Boak and Bailey have access to quite a lot of primary sources from Guinness, see eg here from 1943 - Old Beer Storage (old, sour beer) was just one of the components of Guinness at that time.

Haven't been on in a while. I ended up brewing the oyster stout as a "small beer", which resulted in it ending up a bit thin on the mouth. However I will be brewing it again as a full strength stout. I would recommend giving it a try if you are curious, will not be disappointed. I added 1 oyster at 30 minutes and 3 more at 5 minutes. the stout recipe I used was:

15.4% Rye
15.4% Crystal Rye
3.8% Roasted Barley
3.8% Crystal 120l
23.1% 2 Row
3.8% Chocolate
30.8% Marris Otter
1lb Rice Hulls

Hops:
Saaz, Crystal, Columbus at 30,30,45 respectively.

As it is a small beer my OG was 1.040 and FG 1.008 for around 4% using US-05

Right On! Don't knock it till you try it Were you able to find any good commercial examples to try?