“Vlaams roodbruin bier / Flanders Red Ale” registered as a protected geographical indication — the specification sets total and volatile acidity, esters as ethyl acetate, colour in EBC and bitterness in EBU
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2168 of 22 September 2026, published on 1 October, enters the Belgian beer “Vlaams roodbruin bier / Flanders Red Ale” in the Union register as a PGI. The single document from the application (OJ C/2026/2612 of 7 May 2026) sets quality parameters that can be checked analytically.
- Parameters: original gravity > 7 °Plato, colour > 50 and < 80 EBC, alcohol ≥ 3 % vol., bitterness < 15 EBU, CO₂ > 4.0 and < 7.0 g/l, total acidity > 40 and volatile acidity > 10 milliequivalents NaOH/l, esters > 50 ppm ethyl acetate. At least 70 % of the malt used has a colour from at least 7–8 to at most 160 EBC.
- It is a mixed-fermentation beer: besides Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus spec. and Brettanomyces spec. are at work. It matures wholly or partly in vertical oak vats (“foeders”) with a net capacity of 50–700 hl, and blending is meant to bring the product to a pH comparable with that of wine.
- The blend matures in vats for an average of at least 4.5 months, calculated as (m × X)/(X + Y) ≥ 4.5, where X is the volume of wood-matured beer (≥ 25 % of the blend), Y the volume of young bottom-fermented beer (≤ 75 %) and m the number of months of maturation. With vats smaller than 100 hl, four months are sufficient.
- Barley malt makes up at least 60 % of the starch- and sugar-containing raw materials, unmalted grains, other malts or fermentable sugars at most 40 %; herbs and red fruit are also allowed. The production area covers the districts of Roeselare, Tielt and Kortrijk in West Flanders plus the municipalities of Kortemark and Ichtegem.