Meet Reggie, our oyster guy. He brings us molluscs from Cowell on SA's Eyre Peninsula - his home town. We trade him beer and have for nearly a decade now. Last year, we made a beer with him (an oyster stout, go figure) and this year we brewed it again. Here's how the story began. In Reggie's words...
SCORE REGGIE'S OYSTER STOUT HERE.
Back in 2014 this young bloke was walking towards me in Gilbert Street, just down from The Gilbert Street Hotel. He says to me, “Nice T-shirt mate.”
I had on this Pirate Life promo T-shirt that my daughter had given me a couple of weeks prior.
Quick as a flash I replied, “Nice beer,” having never ever tasted it before in my life.
I went into The Gilbert and my daughter said I should try some of this new Pirate Life Pale Ale that they had just put on tap. I bought a pint, went outside, sat at a table and started checking my emails and messages on my mobile.
A lone guy sitting at a nearby table asks, “What are you drinking?”
“Something from a new craft brewery called Pirate Life, a Pale Ale,” I replied.
“What do I think of it?” He asked me.
“It’s possibly the best pale ale I have ever tasted,” I responded quickly, having only just had my first ever sip. He asked me where I came from.
“A place over on EP called Cowell,” i replied.
He said there is a young lady that works here from Cowell (my daughter) and how they had stopped at Cowell on the way over from WA to look for a place to set up their new brewery, and how good the oysters were at the local pub near the caravan park.
“You like oysters?” I asked. Obviously.
“Yes,” he replied.
“You like oysters, I love beer,” I commented.
Unbeknown to me, the guy was Michael Cameron (MC), Pirate Life's CEO. Been pretty good mates ever since.
Every time I’d go to Adelaide from that day on I’d take over a box of Terry Rehn’s Cowell Oysters for their Friday knockoffs. The very same oysters MC had previously eaten at one of our locals. They’d give me a couple of slabs in compensation. Been doing it for about nine years now.
One day I get this call from a guy called Matty O about getting some oysters for a new beer, an oyster stout, being made by a PL’s brewer named Jake. Naturally, the oysters they used to brew the Reggie’s were from the very same oyster farmer and lease (Terry Rehn’s Cowell Oysters) that MC had tried some thirteen years prior.
The rest is history...
*Reggies Oyster Sout is now available for purchase via our online and venue stores!