In addition to sharing The Rare Barrel’s Golden Ale and Red Ale recipes, Jay Goodwin, cofounder and director of blending and brewing at The Rare Barrel in Berkeley, California, also shared with us this recipe for their Dark ale base beer, which is loosely based on the straight Oud Bruin 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
OG: 1.069
FG: 1.012
IBUs: 1
ABV: 6.5%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
9 lb 4 oz (4.2 kg) Pilsner
1 lb 8 oz (680 g) Wheat malt
8 oz (227 g) Aromatic malt
8 oz (227 g) Flaked oats
8 oz (227 g) Spelt malt
8 oz (227 g) Crystal 60
8 oz (227 g) Chocolate malt
2 oz (60 g) Debittered black
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.125 oz (3.5 g) Strisselspalt [2.50%] 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
Recipe is built to yield a batch size of 5 gallons (19 liters) and assumes 72 percent brewhouse efficiency.