Apr 9, 2009: Oyster Beer in North Carolina
Domestic oyster stout is alive and well at the Oyster House Brewing Company in Asheville! The brewery, located in The Lobster Trap restaurant, adds oysters to its signature Moonstone Stout. According to headbrewer Billy Klingel, Moonstone is characterized by "delightful roasted malty notes, a hint of brine and a deliciously dry finish." We were surprised to learn that Klingel adds whole (shells and all!) Prince Edward Island Malpeque oysters directly to the wort: "The shells offer calcium and minerality to the wort and the oyster meat adds somes fresh salinity and brininess."
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Interesting. I’ve had Oyster Shooters at some place down on the Seattle waterfront….oysters in a shot glass with a dark Porter microbeer. My brother lives in NC…I will suggest he seek out this brew from The Lobster Trap.
I can’t find anybody who likes even the idea… We ran it past the Fish Tale Brewery folks (in Oly) and they were like, “Your oysters are really good, our beer is really good, let’s keep it that way.” If your brother does check it out I’d be interested to hear what he thinks!
I’ll do that. Heck….I like to stick a shucked oyster in a Bloody Mary. Oyster beer does not seem so far fetched. Those shooters in Porter were darn good!
I’ve got to say I’m a big fan of the oyster stouts (ones actually brewed with realy oysters), but I’ve not had one where the brine or oyster really shines through.
To remedy that I brewed an Oyster Stout just yesterday that I used 10 Wellfleets in (for a 5 gallon batch). Everything I’ve researched would suggest this is a “heavy” amount of oyster in a beer. Now the hard part comes..waiting 2 weeks to sample it ;)
wow! That does sound like very oystery beer. Let us know how it goes.