McRea's Sip o' the Sea Homebrew Recipe

A historical stout with delicate minerality and a creamy smoked oysteriness. Yes, we said oysters! And this method provides a perfect opportunity to some eat the oysters during the brewing process and enjoy them in a way you never have before. Note: This recipe assumes you are already familiar with the all-grain homebrewing process and related equipment. Visit the American Homebrewers Association "How to Brew" webiste for more information and introduction to the brewing process. Read more about the growing popularity of oyster stout among homebrewers and professional brewers in our story, "Oyster stout unites classic pair in emerging craft beer style."

Ingredients

All-Grain for 5 gallons

Malt

• 9 lb. Simpsons Golden Promise

• 1 lb. Roasted Barley

• 1 lb. Flaked Oats

• 1/4 lb. Peat Smoke Malt

• 1/4 lb. Roasted Wheat

• 1/4 lb. Chocolate Rye

• 3/16 lb. Acidulated Malt

Hops

• 2 oz. Goldings (9.0 HBU’s) @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Goldings @ 15 minutes

• 1 oz. Goldings @ 10 minutes

Yeast

• White Labs London, British, or English Ale

Miscellaneous

• 10-16 medium-sized fresh oysters

• Irish Moss: 1/2 tsp. 30 minutes into boil

• Minerals: Oyster shells in the mash and into the boil kettle

• Prime with 1 cup DME or ideally run the beer on a pub-gas keg system.

Homebrewer Joel Rea inlcludes more than dozen whole oysters in the mash of his McRea's Sip o' the Sea Oyster Stout recipe. After the hour-long mash, the oysters are easy to open and enjoy the sous vide-like cooked oyster combined with the sweet malty juice from the mashed grains. Photos: Joel Rea | Corvallis Brewing Supply

Directions

for All-Grain for 5 gallons

• Crush malt.

• Bring 3 gallons of water and oysters up to 170°F degrees. Dough in the 12 pounds of malt. You are aiming for a mash rest temperature of 155°F. Stir every 10 minutes until conversion is complete or about an hour.

• Mash out and sparge until you have 6 gallons for the boil.

• Remove oysters with slotted long-handled spoon. Shuck oysters and eat the sweat cooked meat of a few of them. Add all shells and whatever oysters you don't eat to the boil kettle. Rea suggests that if you want to eat oysters during this process, now is the time. He says eating them after the long boil will be much less enjoyable because the boiling wort makes them touch and rubbery.

• Boil oysters and shells for 30 minutes in the wort prior to your 60 minute hop schedule.

• Add your hops according to the times listed in the ingredients section (examples: 60 minutes means the hops are boiled the entire duration. 15 minutes means the you add the hops the very last 15 minutes and 0 minutes means you add them right after you turn the heat off)

• After the 60 minute boil, move your pot to your sink for a cold water (ice helps) bath to reduce the heat of the pot down to 100°F. This will take about 15 minutes and it will help if you frequently change the bath water and stir the wort in the pot to mix-up the hot with the cold (or, maybe this is a good time for a wort chiller!)

• Pour your wort into your primary fermenter through a kitchen strainer. Use 2 cold water to rinse the hops in your strainer and to fill your volume up to the desired amount of 5 – 5.5 gallons. This helps to remove more of the sweet wort into your boil pot.

• Once you have 5 - 5 1/4 gallons of wort in your fermenter, shake well to dissolve oxygen into the wort.

• Pitch your yeast and keep the beer warm (70-75 degrees F) until fermentation begins. After fermentation begins, allow the fermenting beer to ferment at the recommended temperature for the type of yeast you are using.

• Transfer the beer to a secondary fermenter when the yeast has flocculated out.

• Age for several weeks until the beer has finished fermenting and aging.

• Bottle with the appropriate amount of priming sugar. Wait one week and see if it is carbonating! Enjoy and think about your next batch!