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%

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. (283 g) raw oysters and brine
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
• 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) yeast

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.)