Surely many, choosing dark beer in a pub, came across such a phrase as "oyster stout". But here is the bonds between dark aromatic beer and marine bivalves, an inexperienced beer lover hardly guess. And the drunken exclamation in the pub: “One more pint of oyster!”, You hardly hear - it just so happened that the name of this beer is more often transliterated from English as “Oyster Stout”.
HISTORY OF Oyster Stout
As caviar is combined with champagne, and two-color brogues with jeans upturns, so seafood, especially oysters, are perfect for almost all varieties of stouts. The secret of the tasteful harmony of dark oily beer and boiled oysters is unknown, and it is better not to even try to unravel this gastronomic rebus - knowledge is helpless here. Before the flawless combination of stouts and oysters, even the famous English beer expert Michael Jackson capitulated. If you delve into the endless notes of this authoritative beer scholar, you can stumble upon his peremptory statement that the harmonious union of the stout and oysters was concluded only in heaven. His opinion on this subject is also shared by the people of Ireland, the birthplace of the famous dry stout Guinness, where the oyster Galway Oyster Festival is held every year, the ritual culmination of which is the collective absorption of mussels flavored with lemon juice in a pair with the same Guinness.
In fact, the first to appreciate the phenomenon of compatibility between stouts and oysters were not the Irish, but the British. Back in the Victorian era, port workers and loaders after a hard day's work loved to treat themselves to strong porters and stouts, not at all proletarian accompanying a pint or two of beer with a plate of boiled oysters. In fairness, it’s worth saying that at that time they cost alike a pack of snacks today. But before the direct diffusion of the two basic components, it did not even reach the stage of beer preparation.
To include oysters directly in the recipe of beer in pursuit of perfect taste began not by the British, but by other New Zealanders. This happened, according to the same Michael Jackson, in 1929. It is not known how things are now in the former British colony with oyster stouts (although they say that it is there that they produce a special oyster concentrate used for brewing this type of beer), but in any case, this brewing feat can be safely entered the column “national pride” .
Ten years later, the Hammerton brewery followed the example of New Zealanders, and gradually oyster stout stouts of ink puddles spread throughout Britain, becoming an extremely popular drink. Add oysters to beer was becoming an increasingly expensive idea - in the XX century from proletarian taverns, these mollusks gradually moved to the menu of gourmet restaurants and naturally increased in price. Therefore, the brewers began to use not oysters, but their juice and ground shells. And in the post-war years, it was not at all up to oysters, and the popularity of this stout declined. But oblivion was short-lived - already in the mid-eighties, oyster stouts began to be brewed again, not only in the British Isles but also in the USA, which today account for the bulk of production of this type of beer.
Production and Features of Oyster Stouts
Today, the combination of stout and oysters can increasingly be evaluated solely in the form of a tandem - not many breweries are engaged in the commercial production of stouts, using fresh clams during cooking. Now, if we are talking about oysters, then more likely about the powder from their shells, or even concentrate. Despite the fact that fresh mollusks are now being added to beer less and less, the characteristic acidity of commercial varieties of oyster beer remains.
In Russia, this type of beer is also quite common: it is, of course, not brewed here, but you can find it on the shelves of shops in a bottle version or in a pub. Nevertheless, the canonical recipe for oyster stout is worth going to the USA, where many private breweries still produce it without saving on oysters and adding them directly to beer. Such production is underway, of course, not in the largest volumes, but rather with the aim of treating yourself and visitors to the local pub with an original drink.
Oysters are opened before loading into a fermentation tank so that the clam meat can be completely digested and add the necessary consistency to a dense consistency. At the same time, no hegemony of a brackish oyster flavor is out of the question. Fresh mollusks add only a barely noticeable refined note to the taste palette of beer, without delaying the main attention.
NOTE
Decide what to do with this knowledge, but just in case: oysters are very healthy and a powerful aphrodisiac due to the high zinc content. So, for known purposes, Casanova took at least fifty oysters a day. It must be assumed that the oyster stouts of these properties are not without.
Resume.
GLASS: A slippery topic: A guide to oyster stouts - a strong dark clam-based beer. Image No. 3.
FEED TEMPERATURE: A slippery topic: A guide to oyster stouts - a strong dark clam-based beer. Image No. 4.
FORTRESS: A slippery topic: A guide to oyster stouts - a strong dark clam-based beer. Image No. 5.
SNACKS: Despite the excessive presence of mollusks directly in the beer recipe, it will not be superfluous to order oysters or other seafood like crabs or smoked salmon for such stouts.
TASTE: In the taste palette, oyster stouts are located exactly between dry and sweet varieties. During the tasting, you can find both bitter notes and barely noticeable sourness. Malt flavors, spiciness and light floral and coffee echoes are characteristic.
COLOR: Impervious charcoal black. The foam of oyster stouts is rather dense, usually dull yellow or coffee