ADVERTISEMENT

The Rare Barrel Red Ale Recipe

If you liked The Rare Barrel’s Golden Ale recipe, check out this one for their Red Ale.

Apr 11, 2017 - 3 min read

The Rare Barrel Red Ale Recipe Primary Image

In addition to The Rare Barrel’s Golden Ale recipe Jay Goodwin, cofounder and director of blending and brewing at The Rare Barrel in Berkeley, California, also shared with us this recipe for their Red ale base beer, which is loosely based on the straight Flanders Red style. We’ve scaled it to homebrew size. As this recipe is written, you can pitch any of the suggested mixed cultures into the primary fermentor and leave the beer to age from several months to a year or more.

An alternate approach is to ferment initially using a clean Saccharomyces strain such as Wyeast 1056, White Labs WLP001, or US-05, and then rack to secondary and add a strong mixed culture of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. If you use this alternate method, Jay recommends mashing at 155°F (68°C) for an hour to ensure that enough residual sugars remain for the mixed culture to consume during aging.

You can use any low alpha acid hops because only a small quantity is needed—just enough to achieve one IBU or so.

ALL-GRAIN

ADVERTISEMENT

OG: 1.056
FG: 1.008
IBU: 1
ABV: 6%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

7 lb 9 oz (3.4 kg) Pilsner
1 lb 2 oz (0.5 kg) Wheat malt
8 oz (0.23 kg) Aromatic malt
8 oz (0.23 kg) Flaked oats
8 oz (0.23 kg) Spelt malt
8 oz (0.23 kg) Crystal 60
2 oz (60 g) Debittered black

HOPS SCHEDULE

0.125 oz (3.5 g) Strisselspalt [2.50% AA] at 60 minutes

DIRECTIONS

Mash for 90 minutes at 145°F (63°C), sparge, and boil for 90 minutes, following the hops schedule.

YEAST OPTIONS

Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend
White Labs WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix 1
White Labs WLP665 Flemish Ale Blend

Recipes is built to yield a batch size of 5 gallons (19 liters) and assumes 72 percent brewhouse efficiency.

In Craft Beer & Brewing’s new Wood Aging Your Beer class, you'll learn how to use wood for its unique flavor contributions, as well as for its ability to host a wide range of souring microorganisms. Sign up today!

ARTICLES FOR YOU