Flanders Pale Ale

Business and Economy, Food and Drink
Flanders Pale Ale Roger Protz and Tom Jenkinson

The Chiltern Brewery take particular pride in their special limited edition beers and Flanders Pale Ale released yesterday (Tuesday 29th July) has been a true labour of love and inspiration. The ale was launched today by Roger Protz at the brewery in Terrick.

Award winning beer writer and editor of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide Roger Protz first suggested the brewing of a Flanders Ale to mark the centenary of the start of the World War One and the close brewing links between Belgium and Britain. Following the success of their collaboration on Ruby Ale to celebrate 40 years of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, Head Brewer Tom Jenkinson and Roger devised a recipe for a beer that uses pale and Vienna malts, along with a Belgian version of the English Challenger hop from Poperinge, close to Ypres in Flanders. The use of Belgian hops is a first for the brewery.

The result is Flanders Pale Ale 6.2% vol, a truly special limited edition and bottle conditioned beer, deep golden in colour with a smooth palate, a subtle burnt toffee flavour and a well balanced hop note.

“Belgium and Britain are united by a love of pale ale – a passion cemented by Britain’s support for Belgian independence during World War One. Flanders Ale, based on authentic recipes from that period, salutes a great beer style”, says Roger Protz.

“We really hope that Flanders Pale Ale will be a fitting memorial to the spirit and bravery of the soldiers of 1914 and a celebration of this wonderful beer style and the many links between the Belgian and British brewers”, says Tom Jenkinson.

On Wednesday 29th July 1914 an Austrian bombardment of Belgrade began and at 11pm on Tuesday 4th August 1914 Britain ‘commenced hostilities’. The low-lying and agriculturally fertile northern part of Belgium known as Flanders was a scene of heavy fighting in WW1. The poppies that covered the landscape came to symbolize the war dead.

Pale ale was a style of beer reminiscent of home and close to the hearts of British soldiers, although pale ales had been imported into Belgium before the war. In addition, a number of Belgian breweries produced their interpretations of British pale ale before, during and after the war and they continue to this day. It is in this spirit that Flanders Pale Ale has been created.

Roger Protz is editorof CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, twice winner of the Glenfiddich Drink Writer Award and Fuller’s ESB Gold Award for Best Writing for Beer and Pub Trade Press 2013.