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added History section by Roel Mulder
==History==
<blockquote style="background-color: lightgrey; border: solid thin grey; padding:10px;">
:''Editor's note: this section was written by Role Mulder of [https://lostbeers.com/ Lost beers] blog.''
For all we know, Flemish brown as a beer style is not that old. Only a few early 19th century sources mention something that resembles it and the first real description of the 'bitter, rough and astringent brown beers of Flanders' dates from 1851.
Before the 19th century, most beer in today's Belgium was drunk fresh and was not allowed to age for more that maybe a couple of months at most. However, during the 18th century a few keeping beers developed in Western Europe, such as porter in Britain, a beer called 'old brown' in The Netherlands, and faro and lambic and Brussels.
Apparently, the brewers of Flanders (by which we mean: today's Belgian provinces of East- and West-Flanders) were late adopters. It wasn't until ca. 1880 that their aged, brown beer really became popular. The Rodenbach brewery in Roeselare, founded in 1825, may have played a role in this. Around 1875, young Eugène Rodenbach worked as an apprentice in various breweries in England, and allegedly he used some the knowledge he acquired there to introduce new working methods at the brewery in Roeselare.
Around 1900, old brown beer was very popular everywhere in the province of West-Flanders, while in East-Flanders it was the city of Oudenaarde that became most famous for it. Many drinkers and brewers compared it to wine. Rodenbach advertised with 'It's wine!', while Den Os brewery in Bruges simply sold their old brown as 'Bourgogne des Flandres' ('Burgundy of Flanders').
Especially after 1945, the Belgian beer market saw an increasing trend of consolidation. Bottom-fermented beers, especially pilsener, where increasing their market share. Sales of old brown beer were dropping. Various producers made their beer slightly sweeter and less sour to appeal to younger customers. Liefmans in Oudenaarde is a well-known example, but in 1974 even Rodenbach announced they were 'softening' the taste of their beer.
During the 1970s, the more traditional beers of Belgium started to be better appreciated. An important factor in this was Michael Jackson's influential 1977 book The world guide to beer. Contrary to local customs, Jackson chose to describe the brown beers of Flanders as 'red', which has lead to no small amount of confusion. Today, the consensus seems to be that the old beers of West-Flanders are 'red-brown' and those of East-Flanders are 'brown', but historically they were all 'brown'.
There definitely remains more research to be done on to fully understand the history of this beer style. Contributions of any kind are most welcome.
</blockquote>
See also:
* "A small history of Flemish old brown (and red) – 1," by Roel Mulder: [https://lostbeers.com/a-small-history-of-flemish-old-brown-and-red-1 Part 1] and [https://lostbeers.com/a-small-history-of-flemish-old-brown-and-red-2/ Part 2].
* [https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/3643720645656123/ MTF thread with thoughts from Roel Mulder, Lars Garshol, and others on the history of Flanders brown beer.]