Iwate Kura Oyster Stout: A Japanese Stout Brewed With Real Oyster Shells

Yes, there are oysters in it.

Not as a gimmick, and not as a flavor. Oyster stout is a genuine old British style, and this is a Japanese brewery bringing it back using shellfish from its own coast.

Where It Comes From

Iwate Kura Beer is made by Sekinoichi Shuzo in Ichinoseki, Iwate, another sake brewery that moved into beer, launching the beer side in 1996.

It's also structured unusually. Iwate Kura runs as a cooperative backed by five different companies rather than as a single firm, which is rare in Japanese brewing.

The Oyster Shells

The shells come from Hirota Bay on the Sanriku coast, the stretch of northern Japanese coastline known for its oysters.

Shells, not meat. Oyster shell is largely calcium carbonate, and it goes into the boil the way brewing salts would, adjusting the water chemistry, softening the acidity of a dark roasted malt bill, and giving the beer more body.

The result is a stout with depth and a clean, refreshing finish rather than the heavy sweetness dark beer often carries. You don't taste oyster. You taste a stout that's been given more structure than it would otherwise have.

Why We Pour It

Because it's the most interesting dark beer we can put in front of someone, and because the story is true.

Plenty of bars carry a stout out of obligation. This one earns its place. It's from a sake brewery, it uses an ingredient from its own region, and it revives a style most breweries have forgotten.

Pair It With

Rich and braised. Pork kakuni, tonsouku, miso bacon.

It's also very good with unagi don. The roast in the beer and the char on the eel meet in the middle, and the sweetness of the kabayaki glaze has enough weight behind it to stand up.

Dorayaki works too, if you want to finish on it.

Try It at Juraku

Iwate Kura Oyster Stout is on the beer list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Cold weather beer, and we're happy to talk you into it.