At first blush, the combination of beer and oysters might make some turn up their noses. But those in the know have long appreciated the marriage, not just as a pairing, but in the form of oyster stout or porter.
“Oysters were once so common that they were the food of the poor, and porter was the drink of the poor,” writes historian and journalist Martyn Cornell in his new book Around the World in 80 Beers: A Global History of Brewing. “The two would not have been apart for very long.”
The combination makes sense from a flavor perspective—the sweet, roasty flavors of the dark ale complements the briny mineral flavor of the shellfish.
The pairing was so popular that “oyster and porter” houses were once common in cities like Glasgow, London and New York, where patrons could pair freshly shucked shellfish with pints of dark, roasty ale. Eventually brewers got the idea to just combine the two.
A Brief History of Oyster Beer
By the late 1800s, brewers had also discovered that oyster shells—which are rich in calcium carbonate, a clarifying agent—could be used to filter beer before it was botted. As time went on, oyster meat was added to beer for its flavor.
Cornell says that the first commercial stout with actual oysters in its recipe was made by the Dunedin Brewery Company on the South Island of New Zealand in 1938, using concentrated oyster essence. As word spread, other brewers tried their hands at the
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
