Oyster Stout

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rwabdu

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Any one know how to make an oyster stout?

I had the Harpoon Oyster stout the other day and I cant get enough of it! I love the taste of the ocean. Harpoons is a limited batch so I wanted to start making my own that is similar before its all gone.

I've been looking around and I cant find a recipe, not experienced enough to figure it out myself.
 
http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/index.cfm?cdid=160453&pid=28516

It REALLY sounds good. The only thing I found as far as ingredients go is this... I did a about 20 minutes worth of searching around:

"Brewed by Bill Leahy using Island Creek oyster farmer Skip Bennett's revered Duxbury Bay oysters, this beer has a rich body and smooth mouthfeel derived in part from a combination of roasted barley and chocolate rye malts. The roasted malt notes blend beautifully with the briny, mineral flavors of the Island Creek oysters. An addition of hops adds some bitterness to balance the malt sweetness."

I bet if they publicized the name of the hops and yeast we could come up with a close recipe in order to brew it. I don't see myself getting my hands on this stuff anytime soon but I would love to try a small test batch.
 
There's a few places out there and on HBT that speculate about different oyster brews that have hit the market. [ame="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=oyster+stout#q=oyster+stout+recipe&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&bih=855&biw=1668&fp=6823caa7f7b5eef4&hl=en"]Did a search for it...[/ame]
 
I tried one from porterhouse and...it just tasted like a salty porter :drunk:
Not sure what people see in it...but hopefully this might help...

From their website:

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.
 
There is a recipe for an oyster stout in a 200 clone brews book I have. Let me see if I can find it and look up the recipe.

Flying Fish Brewery In NJ made a great oyster stout for the Exit Series. One of the best I have tasted, so I understand your interest. yum.
 
so here is the recipe from Aussie Home Brewer forum. Hard to know if it will taste the way I want it to, like harpoons, but its the best I got so far

"Black Pearl Oyster Stout


(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain with bivalve mollusks)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.013 IBU = 37 SRM = 60 ABV = 5.0%

Despite names like Fat Spider Ale, Turkey Stout and Black Kitty Brown, only one BYO recipe has ever featured animals as an ingredient — Black Pearl Oyster Stout. We’ve been lucky enough to taste this beer, brewed by Joe Walton and Jim Michalk, and it’s delicious. The beer has a complex dark grain character and a slightly silky mouthfeel. There’s no strong oyster flavor, but you may detect a slight salty/briney character. For best results, use hard water with a moderate to high level of carbonates.

Ingredients
9.0 lbs. (4.1 kg) 2-row pale malt
0.5 lb. (0.22 kg) flaked oats
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley
0.5 lb. (0.22 kg) chocolate malt
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) black patent malt
10 oz. can raw oysters (and brine)
1 tsp. Irish moss
8.6 AAU Fuggles hops (60 mins)
(1.5 oz./43 g of 5.7% alpha acids)
4.3 AAU Fuggles hops (20 mins)
(0.75 oz./21 g of 5.7% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs
WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Mash grains for 45 minutes at
152 °F (67 °C). Boil wort for 120 minutes. Add hops at times indicated. Add oysters and Irish moss with 15 minutes left. Cool wort. Transfer to fermenter, leaving oyster bits behind. (Don’t eat the oysters, Joe and Jim say they taste terrible.) Aerate, pitch yeast and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C).

Extract with grains option:
Replace 2-row pale malt with 14 oz. (0.40 kg) Briess Light dried malt extract, 3 lbs. 14 oz. (1.8 kg) Muntons Light liquid malt extract and 2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) 2-row pale malt. In a 3 gallon (11 L) or larger stock pot, heat 1.6 gallons (6 L) of water to 163 °F (73 °C). Placed crushed grains and flaked oats in a large steeping bag and submerge bag in this hot water. Maintain temperature at 148–153 °F (64–67 °C) for 45 minutes. While grains mash, heat one gallon (3.8 L) of water to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove grain bag from steeping pot and place in colander over stock pot. Rinse grains with 0.75 gallons (2.8 L) of water from brewpot. Combine “grain tea” and dried malt extract with remaining hot water in brewpot and heat to a boil. Boil 60 minutes, adding hops at times remaining indicated in recipe. With 15 minutes left in the boil, add liquid malt extract, oysters and Irish moss. Stir thoroughly to dissolve extract. (Keep the clock running even though it will take a few minutes for the wort to resume boiling.) Cool wort and transfer to fermenter, leaving oyster bits behind. Add water to make 5 gallons (19 L). Aerate, pitch yeast and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C).

(All-grain recipe from “Oyster Stout: A seaworthy stout experiment” by Joe Walton, January-February 2004, p. 64.) "
 
Use REAL raw oysters. I added 6 fresh oysters in my oyster stout. I picked up from Turners Seafood in Melrose, but any freshies will do. I added them in the last 15 minutes of the boil.
 
Use REAL raw oysters. I added 6 fresh oysters in my oyster stout. I picked up from Turners Seafood in Melrose, but any freshies will do. I added them in the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Yea I think your right, no sense in making it with some canned ones when all the other ingredients are so good.

was your recipe similar to the one I posed above?
 
Yes mine was similar, here it is.

2 lbs. American 2-row
0.5 lbs. American Black Patent
0.5 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
1 lbs. Roasted Barley
3.3 lbs. Dark Liquid
3 lbs. Dry Dark Extract
1 lbs. Oats Flaked info
1.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.00 %AA) boiled 40 min.
2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax)
Yeast :White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout info

Six New England Oysters will be added to the wort with 15 mins remaining in the boil time. (2 Katama Bay, 2 Barnstable, and 2 Damariscotta).
 
here is a video of them making the harpoon oyster stout. she gives some pretty good hints as to how its made.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bumping this old thread... Feedback from anyone?


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A welcome bump.

Haven't brewed one, but am researching it and will brew it in next month. Inspired to do so after having a few pints of Ballast Point's Winter San Salvador last spring - a delicious beer. Ultimately I'd like clone that lager, but figured I'm probably safer starting off with a beer that gives me a little more to hide behind if I overdo the oysters...
 
I brewed this recipe over the summer. Good beer but I did not detect any briny /salty flavors.

Used Fresh Oysters. This recipe is from the March Zymurgy issue.

Oyster.jpg


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