Just as Maine’s pristine fresh waters make for great beer, Maine’s salt waters make for some of the very best oysters. With thousands of miles of coastline and proud seafood heritage, Maine is at the fore of oyster farming: a sustainable, restorative way of producing delicious food with an unparalleled taste of place. For this stout, we partnered with Love Point Oysters—one of the more than 150 farms in Maine that stand as sentinel stewards of our environment.

The history of the Oyster Stout dates back to the late 1800s when brewers discovered that oyster shells contain high amounts of calcium carbonate. Seeing as the dark roasted malts typically used in a Stout recipe are fairly acidic, the calcium carbonate from the oyster shells balances out the pH of the beer when the shells are added to the boil kettle. Brewing with oyster shells is a primitive way of tweaking water chemistry. This is not a beer style that tastes like oysters. Instead, the oyster shells soften any harshness from the roasted malts, resulting in a very balanced and highly drinkable dark beer.

Love Point Oyster Stout will be available in our Freeport tasting room when we open on Friday, May 10th at 10:00 am.