Personally, I have a very long relationship with Rodenbach. Hence, when it was announced in June 2021 that a book was launched for the 200 years existence of that iconic brewery, I considered this a great moment to revisit the brewery, … for the umpteenth time. Note the brewery is owned since 2016 by the Swinkels Family Brewers from the Netherlands (owners of Palm, Bavaria, La Trappe, De Molen, ‘t Uiltje, etc.) who bought it from Palm.
Upon visiting, I was welcomed by head brewer Rudi Ghequire who, with his 40 years of service is a barrel (rather a foeder!) full of Rodenbach knowledge and stories. Rudi wanted to run through the book first, given it is a great achievement and work of love. It is written by renowned Belgian beer author Erik Verdonck and is available in Dutch, French and English. In English, it is aptly called 'Rodenbach, History poured in a bottle, History written in a bottle’.
The first part of the book focuses among other on the beers (aroma and flavor description, pairing notes, …), brewery, hospitality (pubs) and catering industry (restaurants), and culinary uses (cheese, chocolate). All this is obvious because Rodenbach beers are a match made in heaven in the kitchen. The second part takes a closer look at the unique Rodenbach family, including the fact that it were Alexander, Ferdinand Gregoor, Pedro and Amalia Rodenbach who founded the Roeselare-based brewery in 1821. This is not the start of brewing however. Mention is made of the fact that a brewery, called ‘Clein Spaignien’ (Little Spain) already existed in the street where Rodenbach is located (Spanjestraat) with plenty of links to the Rodenbachs, some even before 1821. Unknown to most is that at the beginning not only a brewery was operated but also a distillery.
The book serves many purposes. It is a coffee table book, given 60 % of the content consists of (great) pictures and countless unique images from the archives. The 40 % text explains and emphasizes in a detailed way all aspects of the beers, the brewery and the family. Because of the multiple recipes and pairings, you could consider it a cook book as well. A fantastic feature is that QR-codes are provided with certain parts of the story, 22 QR’s in all, allowing the reader to investigate things further, e.g. to go to a 1956 promo-movie for cinema, a link to the 1851 book of Georges Lacambre ‘Traité complet de la fabrication des bières … etc.
After this extensive but pleasant chat about the book it was time to walk around the brewery. As the focus was on the past and the 200th anniversary of the brewery, we started in the reception rooms, where an original Belgian flag is hanging, given by the first King of Belgium Leopold I to the city of Roeselare, based on Rodenbach exploits. Fun thing is that this flag has 3 horizontal bands in the three colors black-yellow-red, contrary to the (current) official flag with vertical bands with the same colors.
From there, we went to the current state-of-the-art brewery, erected under Palm's direction in 2001 and inaugurated in January 2002. We did not spend much time there. But long enough for Rudi to point out that this brewing equipment is made by MEURA, just like the previous equipment dating back to 1864.
And then we delved in the historical heritage. We first walked to the original malt house, founded in 1864, adapted in 1933 (the year on the hood of the malt kiln refers to this) and then doubled in size in 1951 before being finally closed in 1976. An important note was that the malt house only worked in winter. Then we went to the very nicely restored malt cellar from 1872, which is equipped with practical explanations of how kilning was done in the past. A series of signs explain the brewing process and the different fermentation methods. Clear details show exactly how mixed fermentation works. In fact, mixed fermentation is a production method that allows to brew beer also in summer, because the acidity is balanced between the old and the young beer.
From there it went to the famous and iconic foeders, large oak wooden vessels. Rodenbach has 10 foeder rooms where the temperature is between 12° and 15°Celsius. Entering it, you feel a kind of calm, awe and admiration – like entering a cathedral or a majestic castle. In those rooms, row after row, there are 294 foeders with a capacity between 120 and 650 hectolitres. Here lie thousands and thousands, yes, millions of liters of slowly maturing Rodenbach beer. My friend Peter Bouckaert, former head brewer at Rodenbach and now working in the US for over a quarter of a century had told me a fun fact, i.e. when entering the foeder room, you will see an ultrasonic generator from the 1940s-1950s, set up on the left. And indeed, that was the case. The idea back then was to stimulate maturation, especially of the large foeders. But that didn't work, and so this 'brewing heritage' has been inactive for decades. Good thing Rodenbach beer ‘in the making’ doesn't let itself be rushed...
We then went to the wood processing department where quite a few cubic meters of oak are waiting to be used. This is the field of activity of the two coopers active in the brewery, who not only maintain the foeders and repair them if necessary, but also make new ones. Note the oldest foeders still in use are over 185 years old.
On we went to the old brewing hall. Very nicely tiled in blue and white. The aim of both Rudi and Swinkels Family Brewers is to transform this part of the brewery into an experience center within a few years, where beer brewing is explained 'à l'ancienne'. The walls would then be adorned by a multitude of historical pieces, such as posters, photos, advertising panels, and the like. Above the old brewhouse is the coolship, which has not been used since 1987. There Rudi explained the difference between the wort treatment of lambic and Flemish red-brown. After all, few people still know that Rodenbach also made lambic and gueuze under the name ‘Gueuze Saint-Georges’ for about two decades, ending production in 1977. This was done as follows: ventilation valves are located on the edge of the coolship, and below the coolship is an air treatment installation with paraffin filter. When there was lambic wort on the coolship, the ventilation valves were closed. The condensation thus ended up on the sloping walls and as a result dripped back into the coolship, including the wild yeasts. For red-brown wort, air was blown over the paraffin filter and directed through the ventilation valves, which prevented the condensation from settling on the walls.
But, all this leads to many questions about the beer itself. So, why does the brewery insist on their beers being called Flemish red-brown, you might ask. And what is the difference with other dark beers from Flanders ? This is a long story.
First, let us get back to Georges Lacambre, beer book writer. He married a niece of Regina Wauters, who ran the Rodenbach brewery from 1836 to 1874. Important to mention is that Georges in his 1851 book does mention the ‘Flanders’ brown beer style but states it is subdivided into a host of varieties, showing things were not clear even back then. However, in emphasizing West Flanders, Georges points out the brewing method there is quite similar to brewing Uytzet. Reading the chapter on Uytzet shows that old and young beer was blended for the ‘Dubbel’ Uytzet. Seemingly proof that in West Flanders blending young and old has existed for some time. And clearly this is the case for Rodenbach, as a business card from the period around 1870 shows ‘Uytzet’ next to the then brewery name, providing 100 % proof this is exactly the type of beer that Rodenbach then produced.
Second, the story of the term, i.e. Flemish red-brown (Vlaams roodbruin) itself lies in the constant confusion between the West Flemish brown beers (Cuvée des Jacobins, Rodenbach, Bacchus, ...) and the East Flemish beers (Liefmans, Adriaen Brouwer, ...), all of which were/are shoved under the heading 'Oud Bruin' by some. But there are a lot of differences, certainly since WW II. The East Flemish beers are not matured in wooden barrels/foeders, are (almost always) not a mix of young and old beer, etc. To make this clear once and for all, the brewery coined the term Vlaams roodbruin for the West Flanders style. But it seems difficult to get all brewers from West Flanders to agree with the term and the specifics.
Of course, we could not do without a nice beer, and at the same time extra information was provided about some typical characteristics of the Flemish red-brown. The acidity is below 3.5 pH, similar to wine. One of the important parameters of acid is the level of ethyl acetate, being the esters of ethanol and acetic acid, which is reminiscent of green apples. Rodenbach has put a tracer on it, and a specific maximum level must not be exceeded to still be tasty. Slightly acidic makes the beers easily digestible and appetizing. Acid dissolves proteins, which makes the accompanying food 'tender'. There was definitely a great reason why the company had a publicity campaign between the 1930-ies and -50ies with the iconic ‘Aunt Yvonne’ claiming ‘Rodenbach bier – it’s wine’.
My recommendation, if you are thirsty, go for a Rodenbach (type) and definitely enjoy.
