Scrimshaw Oyster Stout
Barley Days Brewery

 

Although I'm sure I've tried the style before I have little to no experience with oyster Stouts. Seems as if people were generally underwhelmed by this beer, but i thought it was great!

Appearance - Pitch black as one would expect from the style. Decent 1/4" head that remained relatively constant.
Aroma - Sweet smell of roasted malts that has a carmel & honey nose. Apparent coffee aroma in the background. Funny to read someone else's review referencing tobacco because there's certainly something there.
Flavour - Not having too much experience with oyster stouts I found it difficult to pickout any oyster tastes here. Overall i found the flavour to be quite pleasant, with sweet chocolate forward notes and a dry finish. Light coffee taste and a bit of toffee.
Feel - Creamy mouth feel with light palate-cleansing carbonation. Surprisingly light bodied given its rich colour.

Appearance: dark brown, highly viscous; tan head is short and quickly disappears; have concerns about the body of this beer already

Aroma: cinnamon, clove lead the way, unexpectedly; some maple syrup

Taste & Mouthfeel: not much roasted stout flavours before it quickly turns to an oily, fatty taste that keeps building through the finish, leaving a quite bizarre aftertaste, fishy and salty; body is light and with little carbonation, rather flat; there's no variation in flavour or the experience, very soon al you get is that oily, salty, fishy flavour - and it's not all that pleasant

Overall: a weak body and frankly unpleasant taste due to far too much contribution from the oysters - no subtlety here it needs balance with some good roasted malt flavours and a more supportive body

 

 

 

 

Looks great, but that's about it. Very subdued in character, not enough of the chocolately, coffee-ish, toasty goodness that you'd expect in a proper stout. Someone slick mouthfeel, a bit of sourness happening. Saltiness, too. Sorry, but I'm just not a fan of this brewery. They don't seem to have the knack.

 

Scrimshaw looks more stout than oyster; about four-fifths of the glass looks like dark chocolate and even what isn't liquid, the modest amount of foam that floats atop, is coloured more like milk chocolate than actual milk. Clarity has no chance, especially after sediment murks things up.

It will sound neither polite nor appealing but there may be no more accurate way of putting it: this smells like an ashtray that's been rinsed out with sea water. You'll have to trust that it's nowhere as offensive as that sounds, but defining notes do include tobacco, ashes, and brine.

Brininess indeed. This is probably the most oyster-y oyster stout I've yet to try. (Granted, I've not drunk a ton but in my experience the presence of oysters tends to be negligible at best.) Here there is definite, albeit subtle sea-shell taste and minerality on-top of flavours of black coffee, cocoa beans, and barbecue char.

For all its darkness, however, Scrimshaw is reasonably light-bodied. If people find it to get past the ashy smokiness and roasted malt, they'll notice that this is really no more filling than a typical lager. The softer mouthfeel provides more flexibility food-wise; seafood is an obvious choice but I'd look beyond oysters. Buttery lobster maybe?

Scrimshaw is a good use of 1000 P.E.I. oysters and a very fair rendition of this classic British style stout. That being said, it didn't leave me 'happy as a clam'. For my tastes the roast was a tad too astringent and the emphasis on espresso and dark chocolate flavours too great. Still, the brine was at least appreciable and the stout easily drinkable. Something definitely worth trying...