A Tale of Two “Extreme” Beers

Due to either coincidence or the cycle of this month’s moon, a few sites and newspaper articles have recently touched on “extreme” beers.

First, I’m no fan of the word extreme when it comes to food and drink. It reminds me of the ADD-like commercials for beverages like Mountain Dew and other such awful energy drinks. But in the beer world, extreme is more about the different types of ingredients used and/or brewing techniques.

Just in the past week I’ve had the opportunity to experience two different, what some would refer to as, extreme beers.

Exit 1 – Bayshore Oyster Stout – Flying Fish Brewing Co.

Since hearing about this beer a few months ago, I’ve been wanting to try some for myself. Unfortunately, there was none to be found in the area. Luckily, on my drive back to Baltimore from Philadelphia last week, I stopped by Wine Source in Delaware to check their craft beer selection. Bingo! The last big bottle of Exit 1 Oyster Stout was sitting on the shelf, begging for me to take it home. Done deal.

We must give kudos to Flying Fish on their “Exit” series of beers. The idea behind the series is to celebrate their home state of NJ while using local ingredients. The “Exit” name comes from famous exits on the NJ turnpike.

So obviously the extreme part of this beer comes from the oysters themselves. Once a common style in England hundreds of years ago, the thought of brewing beer with oysters hasn’t really been heard of much here as of late.

Brewing with oysters, in this instance, may not quite be what you would imagine. In this video, you’ll see that the oysters (fresh from NJ’s Delaware Bay, in the southwest region of NJ between it and the state of DE), are dumped whole (shell and all) into a mesh bag. The bag full of oysters is then placed in the “boil” part of the brew process for about 15 minutes. This process extracts minerals from both the oyster and the shell, giving the beer a distinct dry finish.

The beer is an English style stout. Fairly sweet on its own, but as mentioned above – the dryness from the oysters balances out that sweetness, making this stout quite an original beer. If you drank this beer without knowing it was brewed with oysters, you likely wouldn’t have any idea that in fact it was brewed with shellfish. But once you have that fact in the back of your head, you can sort of pick up a slight oyster taste; though its really the dryness which separates this from most stouts. And contrary to And at just 7% ABV, you can enjoy this big bottle while not feeling like you were just at a 4 hour oyster and beer fest!

This one we do recommend. Even if oysters aren’t really your thing, the price tag is more than reasonable (about $7 for a big champagne-sized bottle) and you get to tell your buddies you drank a beer brewed with oysters!

“Atlantic IPA” – BrewDog Ltd

The second extreme beer we experienced this past week is the Atlantic IPA from up-and-coming brewery BrewDog (Scotland).

These guys are making some big beers, a rarity for a UK brewer. They’ve recently caught the eye of US craft brewery Stone Brewing Co. in San Diego. The two recently collaborated on a beer called Bashah, a black double IPA. I had this beer on tap at Max’s not too long ago and really enjoyed it.

Now on to this particular beer, Atlantic IPA. This IPA is apparently the first sea-aged beer in the last 200 years. The story goes like this:

After two tempestuous months aging aboard BrewDog founder James Watt’s mackerel trawler on the North Atlantic, Atlantic IPA will be the first commercially available, genuine sea-aged IPA in two centuries.

James says he was given an 1856 Brewer’s Handbook as a gift last Christmas which contained an even older original IPA hoppy recipe – which provided inspiration for him to embark on BrewDog’s latest voyage of discovery. In January 2009 his fishing trawler set off into the North Atlantic with seven barrels on-board, each containing beer brewed from the original recipe.”

Originating in the 1700s, India Pale Ales were developed in Britain and sent by sea to British people living in India. James Watt says “Today the term IPA has lost its meaning and UK brewers mainly use it to describe beers which are neither particularly hoppy or high in alcohol. It’s sad to see the great IPA heritage in this country come to stand for nothing more than a sparingly hopped low ABV blonde session.”

Atlantic IPA survived two months on the North Atlantic, involving “a tense barrel-rescue-mission, force ten storms, 60-foot waves and encounters with killer whales.” Upon return it was bottle conditioned and is now available at £10 per bottle. (note: retail 12oz bottles range in the U.S. from $20-$30)

“We’ve taken the style back to its roots and created the first genuine IPA for two centuries,” says James. “Going beyond the realms of what would normally be possible is what we’re all about.”

So how is it? Well, the artwork is very nice. The story behind this beer is fantastic. The beer itself? Meh. What can we say? The taste certainly does not live up to the hype, no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise.

It pours & looks like an IPA. Gorgeous full head. Fresh smell of hops. Beautiful lacing down the glass as the head dies down. But the taste is just average for an IPA. Not even as much of a hoppy taste to this IPA, though slightly more as it warms. To be perfectly honest, there are 100 better IPAs out there for a fraction of the cost. Credit to the Brewdog guys for the neat idea, but aging this beer on a boat for 2 months does nothing for the final product in terms of taste. And unfortunately, the insanely high cost comes from this aging process (and maybe the beautiful label art!)

Luckily, this beer was a gift, so we’re not kicking ourselves for spending the same amount of money which could have went towards a nice aged barleywine, quality double IPA, etc.

So we were 1 for 2 with our recent extreme beers. Hey it’s better than going 0-2, right?

Have you tried either of these two beers yet? Thoughts?

Any other extreme beers in your recent rotation worth mentioning?

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