The Brewery: 21st Amendment Brewery (San Francisco, CA)
The Brew: Marooned on Hog Island (English Stout brewed w/ oyster shells)
Availability: Cans & draft (limited)
ABV: 7.9%
Rating: 8/10
Location: Home
The Story? I'm not going to lie. I've been emphatically terrified of oyster stouts. The opportunity to sample Porterhouse Brewing's rendition and Flying Dog's Pearl Necklace (lol) on several occasions, but I just haven't been able to take that plunge.
Origins of the oyster stout stem back to the 1800s where patrons enjoyed toasty, roasted, dark stouts and slippery shelled flesh as a meal - and enjoyed how they curiously complimented each other. The details are hazy, but somewhere between those initial days and early 1900s, the line of progression from food pairing, oyster shells in the boil, to that final experimental step of adding the meat itself.
This artisan can from 21st Amendment is a collaboration with Hog Island Oyster Company and homage to that transitional step of adding shells to the barley and hop boil. Bottoms up!
The Beer? The nose has that nice, dark English aroma with a pinch of chocolate. Cola colored body topped with an off-white head. The beer hits my tongue with a familiar, medium-bodied stout feel that is mildly wet up front and slips into a drier finish. The immediate flavor is everything you'd expect from a quality stout - roasted malts, hints of chocolate, and relatively quenching, but bulky enough to keep the lager-boys at bay.
However, a few sips in and delicate flavors dance in the background. There's a chalkiness that emerges on the finish apace with an understated saltiness. Essence of soy sauce comes to mind while additional mineral and mocha characteristics gently glide past.
These nuances are firmly kept behind an opaque veil of the stout itself. When it comes to experimental beers, Marooned on Hog Island is on the far subtle end of that spectrum. Sophisticated, implied flavors poised for the fastidious imbiber.
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