Inspiration strikes over a dinner of lobster rolls resulting in a beer with a touch of brininess and sweetness.
When I call Oxbow Brewing head brewer Tim Adams, he’s driving back to Maine from Maryland and Pennsylvania with 210 gallons of peach juice in the back of his truck to blend with a sour beer. It’s a long journey for peach juice, but you get the sense that Adams, whose brewery is based in Newcastle, Maine, is used to going the extra mile for his beer.
Photo courtesy of Oxbow Brewing
I’m calling Adams to talk about Saison dell’Aragosta, a gose-style saison made with Maine sea salt and lobsters, that he brewed in collaboration with Giovanni Campari of Italy’s Birrificio del Ducato. You may have heard of it: After the Associated Press ran a short piece about the beer in July, it went viral, a perfect summer odd-news nugget.
For Oxbow, whose farmhouse ales are more nuanced than gimmicky, getting known for a “lobster beer” was somewhat comical. “We’ve never even used spices in our beer, let alone something crazy like lobster,” Adams says.
The beer’s creation was as organic as any, though. Campari and Adams already had planned to brew a gose-inspired saison (a gose is a slightly sour and salty wheat ale) and over a dinner of lobster rolls at Portland’s Eventide, Campari suggested adding lobsters. The next morning, they picked up a dozen lobsters from the local pound and made the beer at their Newcastle brewery housed in an old barn.
Head Brewer Tim Adams | Photo by Andrew Foster
The lobsters were first boiled in a mesh bag in the sweet blonde wort (unfermented beer) until they were cooked perfectly for eating. They picked out the meat for a mid-brew session snack — the best lobster he’s had in his life, Adams says — and saved the rest for dinner lobster rolls. They added the shells to the second batch and aged the beer for about a year before its release last spring.
The lobster character is subtle but present, says Adams, with a touch of brininess and sweetness from the meat. And while the ingredient itself may be atypical for Oxbow, Saison dell’Aragosta falls in line with the company’s brewing philosophy. It’s low-alcohol, at 4.5% ABV, refreshing, delicate, and balanced — “all things we strive for in our beers,” he says. They also try to brew with local ingredients, such as Maine-grown spelt and strawberries, whenever possible.
“We like to use the things that Maine does best in our beers,” Adams says, “and Maine doesn’t really do anything better than lobster.”
While the beer has been sold out since July, Adams says they do plan to brew it again, hopefully in time for next summer.
Photo by Andrew Foster