The Story

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Oyster House Brewing Company history starts back in the ’90’s when I had a dream of one day starting my own brewpub. The vision was the result of a passion for homebrewing great beer and the desire to serve people both beer and food. Years went by and I actually found myself serving people beer and food at The Lobster Trap in Asheville, NC and after a conversation with our Chef and GM, Tres Hundertmark, I was on a mission to create a unique and delicious beer that we could brew and sell exclusively in our restaurant. My mission: To brew the perfect Oyster Stout. It seemed like a bizarre idea at the time, but with a little research found that it wasn’t unheard of and actually was quite delicious.

So I climbed into the dungeon that is my garage and dug out some old homebrew parts. I built a new mashtun out of a cooler, read some books, watched some videos and started homebrewing again… only this time I wasn’t using Malt Extract kits, it was my first attempt at all-grain brewing and I was convinced I could be successful. Well, as it goes, the 1st couple of attempts were minor disasters, stuck mashes, yellow jacket swarms, ants,boil overs, sticky wort all over my patio (typical homebrew disasters). And yet my beautiful wife Holly Ann was always supportive, and thankfully, likes great beer, too. A few tries later and the beer was starting to taste great. After 12 months of obsessive brewing I felt that I had made the perfect Oyster Stout. It was a combination of roasted barley and chocolate malts, with just a hint of some black patent malt and 5 pounds of those delicious oysters on the half shell.

Once I had convinced myself that I had a delicious and very unique beer that would fit in perfectly with The Lobster Trap, it was time to bring the beer to work and let everybody try some. If the staff loved it and the owner Amy loved it, then I knew I could make the dream of having my own brewpub come to life one day. Well the rest is history, 2009 marked the birth of the Oyster House Brewing Company and here we are 1000’s and 1000’s of pints sold and in the business of making great beer.

Cheers,
Billy Klingel
Head Brewer & Owner
Oyster House Brewing Company