Oyster Stout washing ashore at Legend

It was in 1929 that the first brewer thought of combining the oyster and stout.

February 5, 2014; 10:03 AM • by Richard Hayes

Legend Brewing has announced the next brew in their Urban Legend series, Teach’s Oyster Stout. This was a collaborative effort with Andy Rathmann & Conor Halfpenny from St. George Brewing. Teach is much better known by his pirate moniker Blackbeard.

The phrase Oyster Stout didn’t immediately send my taste buds a quivering but since I wasn’t familiar with the style or why anyone would get an oyster anywhere near a beer I asked my good friend Wikipedia.

Oysters have had a long association with stout. When stouts were emerging in the 18th century, oysters were a commonplace food often served in public houses and taverns. By the 20th century, oyster beds were in decline, and stout had given way to pale ale.

The first known use of oysters as part of the brewing process of stout was in 1929 in New Zealand, followed by the Hammerton Brewery in London, UK, in 1938.^[33]

Modern oyster stouts may be made with a handful of oysters in the barrel, hence the claim of one establishment, the Porterhouse Brewery in Dublin, that their award-winning Oyster Stout was not suitable for vegetarians.^[34] Others, such as Marston’s Oyster Stout, use the name with the implication that the beer would be suitable for drinking with oysters.