Flanders Red Ale

A Flanders red pours deep red, burgundy or reddish brown, clear, under a white to pale tan head. It smells and tastes of fruit, cherry, plum, red currant, and of a soft, toasty malt, with a sourness that ranges from moderate to sharp. No hop flavour comes through. Tannins from the wood give a dry finish, and the whole recalls a red wine, though the beer feels lighter and crisper than it tastes. Some versions are sweetened to soften the acid.

Where it comes from

It is the old beer of West Flanders, and the BJCP takes the products of Rodenbach in Roeselare, founded in 1821, as its model. Brewers age it for up to two years in large oak vats called foeders, then blend young beer with old, a method borrowed from England. Belgian brewers count it in one family with the brown oud bruin; the beer writer Michael Jackson first set the two apart.

Brewers use Vienna or Munich malt, caramel malts and some maize, with low-alpha continental hops. Yeast, Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces ferment it, and the oak does the rest.

How to serve it

Pour it at 7–10 °C into a tulip glass. It goes with Flemish beef carbonnade, a Mimolette or pumpkin pie.

Next to its neighbours

It tastes less malty than an oud bruin, with more tart fruit and more of the vinegar-like acetic edge. A lambic is spontaneously fermented and paler; the fruit in a Flanders red comes from the yeast and the wood, not from added fruit.

Flanders Red Ale in numbers

Classic example

Rodenbach

Original gravity

1.048–1.057

Final gravity

1.002–1.012

Food

Beef carbonnade; Mimolette; pumpkin pie

Classic examples

Rodenbach Classic; Rodenbach Grand Cru; Duchesse de Bourgogne; Cuvée des Jacobins Rouge; Vichtenaar Flemish Ale; New Belgium La Folie

BJCP style

23B Flanders Red Ale

Sources

Checked October 30, 2026.

1. 23B. Flanders Red Ale, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
2. Belgian-Style Flanders — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association