Breweries Bring Together Tradition, Creativity and a Taste of the Sea in Oyster Stouts

Among seasonal releases that pop up throughout any given year, few styles of beer manage to intrigue and perplex drinkers like the oyster stout. Of course, there are the inevitable questions: What is it that makes the brininess of oysters work so well with the bold and malty stout flavors? How the hell do you even make a beer with oysters in it? Why put shellfish  in beer in the first place? The answers to these questions may be as diverse as the approaches that brewers take to making an oyster stout. Interestingly, it is actually a historical style of beer that has its roots in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was common for English pubs to feature oysters as a beer snack before deciding to throw the mollusks into the brew itself. 

The style has never reached broad mainstream popularity, but it is appreciated enough that well over a century later, brewers are still turning heads and attracting curious drinkers whenever they release one. For a trio of breweries along the West Coast, the path to oyster stout was a combination of curiosity, creativity, and tradition that led to these unexpectedly delightful beers where they each take a slightly different approach to the style. 

Upright Brewing (Portland, Oregon)

It’s been over ten years since Upright Brewing’s Alex Ganum brewed his first oyster stout. With a plan hatched over beers at Portland’s Horse Brass Pub, Ganum and Jason McAdam of Roots and then Burnside Brewing set out to try something new and different.

“I love oysters and at the time the idea seemed peculiar as I'd never even drank one, let alone produced one. I'm usually game for new or fun projects and an oyster stout definitely fit the bill,” reflects Ganum.

Since then, Upright has made their oyster stout the same way every year, adding whole Hama Hama oysters to the hopback and several gallons of oyster "juice" to the kettle. This juice, also known as liquor or brine, makes up nearly 3% of the volume. Anyone that has tasted a freshly shucked oyster knows that much of the briny flavor comes from the liquor, and this is also the case with Upright’s stout.

To build on the flavor, Ganum made a slight tweak to his recipe for the latest batch. “We often work in rye but used some malted oats instead this year, both of which are great adjuncts to boost body and provide nice flavor as well. We've used a few different yeast strains since 2009, and found that some don't seem to react as well to the high mineral content. This year is the first in which we used our current house strain, an old top cropper from Yorkshire.”

The resulting beer, which this year is served through the Upright beer engine, is “one of those pairings that may sound odd at first, but there's really something to that combo of a rich, roasty beer and a deep, salt/mineral profile,” according to Ganum.

Though oyster stouts may sound odd and less flashy than fruit-loaded smoothie beers and candy-laden imperial stouts, Ganum thinks they hold a special place. “With all of the gimmicky shit you see these days in craft beer, I think a quirky but historical style like an oyster stout can be a great beacon of sorts - a beer that may seem like a novelty, but makes for a legit experience.”

Yachats Brewing (Yachats, Oregon)

Down the Oregon coast in the tiny town of Yachats, the namesake brewery takes an inventive approach with their smoked oyster stout. Much like Alex Ganum, Yachats Brewing owner Nathan Bernard is a huge fan of Hama Hama oysters, and when his head brewer Aaron Gillham pitched the idea of using them in a stout, he was game. The resulting beer is one that strays far from tradition, with the oysters getting smoked beforehand and the addition of squid ink to make for a bold beer that feels suited to the rugged terrain of the Oregon coast.

“Our oysters are smoked over vine maple prior to the brewing process, which imbues them with a unique maple-smoke character that carries through to the finished beer. We also utilize squid ink in the brite tank for a little extra briny character and jet black, inky appearance,” says Bernard.

Like Upright, their process also utilizes the shells of the oysters, which surely increases the minerality of the beer. “After mashing we separate the oyster meat from the shell and boil the shells in the brew kettle for the duration of the boil. Oyster liquor (brine) is also added during the boil, and the squid ink goes in with our clarifying agents in the brite tank,” he says, adding that “Oyster shells and liquor add that minerality along with a unique briny, salty character that really compliments the ashy, roasty, and chocolatey notes already present in the base beer.”

For the team at Yachats, their oyster stout is less about sticking to tradition and more about creating a beer that is uniquely suited to pair with food while even functioning as its own pairing. “Oyster stout allows the consumer to experience a level of aggressive minerality not present in most styles, along with a unique oceanic aroma and flavor. Seafood and beer are a long-standing pairing, but oyster stout allows the drinker to experience both in one beverage,” says Bernard.

Hen House Brewing (Petaluma, California)

Petaluma, California is also not far from the coast and the brewers at Hen House take full advantage of their proximity to brew up a beer that stands in contrast to the big hazy and West Coast IPAs that put them on the map. Compared to the historical philosophy of Upright and the foodie-centric approach of Yachats, Hen House brews their beer as a way of paying tribute to their environment. Hen House’s oyster stout is a fairly straightforward take on the style that is brewed “to celebrate the Bay Area with the flavors of the coast,” according to marketing coordinator Bob Waegner. “It's designed to have a little ocean air in the aroma, and offering people that flavor experience is the reason we make it.”

Hen House also uses the whole oyster including the shell, which they source from the renowned Hog Island Oyster Company based in Tomales Bay in the nearby town of Marshall. “We also add a bit of salt. We add 1.5 lbs to every 30bbl (930 gallon) batch. We feel that having the whole oyster and the brine inside the oyster helps deliver that slight ‘sea breeze’ aroma we're after,” says Waegner.  

Though Hen House’s oyster stout was motivated by a desire to can up a little local terroir, Waegner is also drawn to the historical aspect of the style. “There seems to be a natural affinity between salty and roasty flavors. Sea food was cheap and common in taverns and coaching inns in the UK during the industrial revolution, as was dark roasty beer. I also personally argue that the salinity in our oyster stout comes from the oysters.”

If you’re truly obsessing over oysters and stouts, then eventually you may start to wonder what oyster farmers make of this beer style. Mason Silkes, Farm Manager and Owner of Salt Water Farms in New England, sees oyster stouts from a more practical perspective and points to the small business similarities between fishing and brewing as a natural match that can have some tasty benefits for everyone.   

“It’s a novelty that bridges two industries that are usually locally owned and operated on a smaller scale, so it really is a passion project for the folks involved, especially the brewer. For the oyster farmer, it’s an avenue to trade your shellfish for some tasty beer, and in some cases get your oyster’s name on a can of beer, which makes the beer that much more fun and satisfying to drink.”

Silkes agrees with the brewers in pointing out that “the salt content would be the determining factor that affects the flavor, which is determined by the salinity of the water body the oyster comes from.”

Though he appreciates the style, in the end he confesses that a good clean lager is the ideal pairing when slurping raw oysters. Nonetheless, if you don’t have access to fresh raw oysters, an oyster stout makes for a liquid substitute that is also a journey through brewing history.