OnTap Magazine

Oyster stouts have been around for ages, but originally oysters were only in the name, rather than the recipe. The term is said to derive from the pairing of the dark beer and mollusc which were both extremely popular in 19th century England and Ireland. Of course, some brewers have taken a more literal approach and actually added real oysters to their kettles. Oysters and stout are a great food and beer pairing so why not cut out the extra work and get that great combo all in one package? Notable breweries releasing oyster beer include Dogfish Head and closer to home, Cape Town’s Drifter Brewing Co. G L O B A L B R E W 01 OYSTERS G L O B A L B R E W 02 ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS G L O B A L B R E W 03 WHALE TESTICLES G L O B A L B R E W 04 PIZZA...AND CASH! G L O B A L B R E W 06 OREO COOKIES G L O B A L B R E W 07 BREAD G L O B A L B R E W 08 DOUGHNUTS G L O B A L B R E W 05 BREAKFAST CEREAL This is what happens when culinary euphemism meets brewer creativity. “Rocky mountain oysters” are a Western USA delicacy better known to the rest of the world as bull testicles. An April fool’s joke gone too far, Wynkoop Brewing first brewed their Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout in 2012 and – presumably due to popular demand – have been brewing it in limited batches ever since. The “oysters” are roasted before being added to the brew. The difference this makes is unclear, though tasting notes on the beer do reference a nutty character… Wholly more controversial and even less appealing than the comparatively tame rocky mountain oyster stout, is Hvalur by Iceland’s Stedji Brewery. This polarising beer is brewed once a year for the Thorri festival – a time when Icelanders celebrate their heritage and eat a bunch of crazy food of cultural significance (fermented shark meat anyone?). For greater complexity the whale testicle, weighing in at over 7kg, gets smoked over sheep’s dung before being added to the beer. Apart from the single whale testicle in each batch, the beer appears to stick closely to the Reinheitsgebot. Moving on from mammal appendages, but not from meat entirely, we have the Big Ass Money Stout collab by New York City-based gypsy brewer Evil Twin and Norway’s Lervig Aktiebryggeri. This massive 18% ABV imperial stout includes frozen ham and pepper pizzas in the mash and actual cash money added post fermentation (because why not). Evil Twin is no stranger to the experimental side of brewing so it’s no surprise that when the brewery aims to push the limits, something insane like this is the result. Most breakfast cereals are not really that far removed from beer, since they are largely made from grains also used as common brewing adjuncts. There is a lot of flavour overlap between cereal products and the flavours found in barley malts – chocolate, biscuit and grain-like among them. Breakfast cereals also have a great way of evoking childhood memories, so it makes a lot of sense for brewers to try and incorporate the flavours of much-loved cereals into their beers. Froot Loops have been used by a few different breweries (including Woodstock in Cape Town) in both stouts and IPAs. Other notable examples Coco Puffs Brown Ale (Fox River Brewing, USA), Cap ‘n Crunch Belgian Trippel (Somerville Brewing Company, USA) and a range of beers from Manchester’s Seven Brothers brewery, which use leftover grains from the nearby Kellogg’s factory to replace a portion of barley in the grist bill. The famous dunking cookies are conventionally paired with a glass of milk. The brewers at the Veil Brewing Co. in Virginia USA have kindly saved drinkers a lot of trouble by combining this pairing into their wonderfully named beer, Hornswoggler. This is chocolate milk stout is conditioned on Oreo cookies and, since the name means someone who tries to deceive or trick you, probably tastes just like an Oreo cookie. The Toast brand was launched in the UK in 2016 as a project to repurpose surplus bread from bakeries and food manufacturers to reduce wastage, support charities and brew great beer. The basic premise is that bread makes up a part of the fermentables of the beer, reducing the amount of barley required thus cutting down the impact along the supply chain in terms of carbon emissions, water saving and agricultural land usage. What’s more, it finds a use for bread that would otherwise end up in a landfill and even sends the profits to local charities. The project has been replicated in the USA, Brazil, Iceland as well as South Africa (although sadly the local version is no more). There are a lot of doughnut- inspired beers out there, but once again the madmen at Evil Twin were the ones to put actual doughnuts in a beer. Their Imperial Doughnut Break is an 11.5% ABV imperial porter conditioned on hundreds of glazed doughnuts post- fermentation. The original concept for the beer came from adding doughnuts to a keg of the base beer previously conditioned on biscotti. While not as crazy as their aforementioned pizza beer, this sounds intense, and should possibly be paired with an insulin shot. BREWER'S DOZEN 50 | Winter 2020 | ontapmag.co.za