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'''Flemish red-brown beer''', also known as "Flanders red brown beer", is a classic Belgian beer style that is produced only by a small handful of breweries in Flanders, Belgium today. Some breweries outside of Flanders and Belgium aim to produce comparable beers <ref name="snauwaert">[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168160515301896 Microbial diversity and metabolite composition of Belgian red-brown acidic ales. Isabel Snauwaert, Sanne P. Roels, Filip Van Nieuwerburg, Anita Van Landschoot, Luc De Vuyst, Peter Vandamme. 2015.]</ref>. These beers, red to brown in color, are characterized as being sour and sometimes sweet, with malt flavors and fruity complexity from the mixed fermentation and sometimes hints of oak. They have often been described as "wine-like". Non-Belgian beer writers, beginning with Michael Jackson, have split these beers into two categories, : "Flanders Red Ale" and "Oud Bruin". The distinction between these two has arguably been that "Flanders Red Ales" are generally brewed in West Flanders and are aged in oak, while "Oud Bruin" is generally aged in steel fermenters and brewed in East Flanders, and the "Oud Bruin" version is less acetic and more malty in flavor (Belgian brewers make no such distinctions). Rodenbach, Brewery Verhaeghe, Liefmans, and De Brabandere are examples of some of the most well known Belgian producers <ref>[https://lostbeers.com/flemish-brown-red-or-red-brown/ "Flemish brown, red or red brown? How Michael Jackson invented a beer style out of thin air," by Roel Mulder. Retrieved 08/29/2020.]</ref><ref>[http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000217.html "Belgium's Great Beers". The Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson. 1999. Retrieved 01/27/2016.]</ref><ref>[http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf 23B. BJCP 2016 Guidelines. Flanders Red Ale and 23C. Oud Ruin.]</ref>. Classic Belgian examples have been flash pasteurized or sterile filtered and are not alive in the bottle<ref>[http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/the-sour-hour-episode-9/ Rudy Ghequire from Rodenbach on the Sour Hour]</ref> (~35 minutes in) (also ref Mad Fermentationist dregs list). Belgian brewers are seeking to protect the term "Flemish Red Brown Beer"; see [[Flemish_Red_Brown_Beer#Protection_Seeking|Protection Seeking]] below.
==History==