The Pearl oyster pilsner is back in Western North Carolina. Morganton’s Fonta Flora Brewery and Asheville’s Jettie Rae’s Oyster House are bringing back their collaborative oyster pilsner for a limited release beginning the week of Oct. 19, 2026, according to an announcement from One for the Books, an Asheville agency.
Specimen card: The Pearl oyster pilsner
- Classification: pilsner, 5.5% ABV
- Unusual ingredient: oysters and oyster shells selected by the Jettie Rae’s team
- Brewed by: Fonta Flora Brewery (Morganton, N.C.)
- Habitat: Fonta Flora taprooms, Jettie Rae’s Oyster House and select restaurants
- Observation window: limited, starting the week of Oct. 19, 2026
The announcement says The Pearl oyster pilsner “pairs subtle salinity and minerality with a clean finish,” and describes “restrained notes of salinity and minerality” alongside the crispness of the style. Those are the partners’ descriptions. This correspondent has not sampled the specimen, and the release gives no details on oyster variety, quantity or when in the brew they go in.
Field notes on the collectors
Fonta Flora’s website lists three taprooms: the original Morganton tasting room in a historic flatiron building downtown, a farmhouse brewery at Whippoorwill Farm in Nebo, and a Charlotte taproom at Optimist Hall. The announcement says “Fonta Flora’s taprooms” without naming which ones will pour it, so call ahead before driving.
Jettie Rae’s Oyster House is the seafood half of the pairing. Owner Eric Scheffer had this to say about the brewery side: “Working with Todd and his team is always incredible. They are truly masters of their craft with talent, creativity and passion.” The release calls The Pearl oyster pilsner part of “an ongoing partnership” between the two.
How oysters end up in beer (the general record)
The announcement calls brewing with oysters “a centuries-old practice.” The record is murkier than that. All About Beer’s history of oyster stouts traces the pairing of oysters and dark beer to 19th-century England. Beer writer Michael Jackson is cited as saying that in 1938 London’s Hammerton Brewery was the first to brew a stout using a canned oyster concentrate from New Zealand. Other published accounts give different dates and places, so treat any single “first” with caution.
The same article describes a few ways oysters get used:
- Shells as fining: historian Mike Stein says taverns and breweries used shells to clear beer before modern filtration.
- Whole oysters in the kettle: some brewers boil whole oysters in mesh bags or steel baskets, and brewers quoted say much of the briny character comes from the oyster’s juice, or liquor.
- Meat and juice only: one brewery quoted adds oyster meat and juice with salt water instead.
Stouts are the usual host, but not the only one. The article mentions a gose and a black IPA made with oysters. Magnolia Brewing founder Dave McLean also wondered out loud back in 2015 what oyster character would taste like in “a crisp pilsner.” The Pearl oyster pilsner is one Western North Carolina answer. How Fonta Flora handles the oysters and shells in this one isn’t disclosed.
More oyster-beer specimens in our files: Hank’s Oyster Bar and Denizens’ oyster-infused stout and Schlafly’s Stout & Oyster Festival. For more from the same mountains, see Highland Thunderstruck Coffee Porter, and for another take on the pilsner genus, Ratio’s No Shade Pilsner.
Specimen status: catalogued, not tasted. The Pearl oyster pilsner is the rare mountain beer that brings the coast inland, and its window is short.
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