Well after a looonnngg break from taking care of the ole blog I've decided to make my "lazarus post" (thanks for the fantastic phrase to Velki) about an impromptu brew session I had today. After drinking Harpoons Oyster Stout around 3pm yesterday afternoon I thought "well...I can get some oysters and make my own". 2 hours later I'm back at home calculating a recipe while a handsome bag of Wellfleet Oysters are chilling in our fridge.Oyster Stouts have a long (and conflicting history). Some sources say that an OS (because I'm not going to type Oyster Stout 100 times today) is a stout that goes well w/oysters, others will tell you that it's a stout brewed with oysters (and within this group there is debate over the stout being boiled or mashed with oysters). So yeah..I'm just going to make one with real oysters in the boil, shell n all! If
you are interested in OS's here is a great video from Upland Brewing and their OS - brewed with whole oysters.
Those who know me, well they know that I'm a huge oyster fan. For me it's one of those topics that perfectly blends history, food, and now brewing. I've always credited oysters as being the first "weird" food that I ate in life, and I do believe that one taste of raw oysters at Crickets in Coeur d'Alene, ID really set me off on my pursuit of cooking and ultimately brewing. In short - I love oysters..which is why I have a big one on my shoulder at all times. For those of you interested in NYC History (and globally to an extent) AND oysters I highly recommend Mark Kurlanskys book "The Big Oyster".
Back to the topic at hand. Less than 24 hours ago my wife (who has an uncanny eye for new and interesting beers that she knows I'd love to try) spotted Harpoons Oyster Stout and pointed it out, with cat like reflexes (and old cat..like when people see it they say "wow..that thing is still alive eh?") I snagged one of the last bottles and we were on our way. To save you some reading (reading..feh! Am I right??) I wont review the beer, I'll just say that even though it was brewed with oysters, well you dont get much of a briny taste from it, rather it turns out to be delicious when drank while eating oysters. To remedy that I thought I'd go a little heavy on the whole oysters, light on the hops, and the grains mashed very low (average 148F) so that the o
ysters really shine through.
Another different approach I took on this brew is that I went the "Brew in a Bag" route. I did this with an established recipe I've been working on for some time now, so I should get a very good impression of how much my efficiency suffers by not doing a tradition sparge and having such a high H2O: grain ratio in the mash. We will see if this was folly or not in a few weeks..
Long story short I'm excited about this brew, and plan on bottling it rather than putting it on tap.
Cheers!
Brian
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