Laurelwood Brewing Releases Flanders Red Ale and 2017 Santa’s Woody Bourbon Barrel Aged Barley Wine Ale

Back in October at BREWPUBLIC’s Killer Beer Week Recovery Beerunch, Laurelwood Brewing offered a sneak peek at its lovely Flanders Red Ale. Now the beer is available for purchase only at both Laurelwood Pub locations on NE Sandy and SE Milwaukie. Flanders Red Ale is one of the brewery’s small batch releases with a very limited number of bottles so don’t delay.

Flanders Red Ale is a beer that has a bit of history to it even though this is the first time that it has been officially released. The beer itself began nearly two years ago under the guidance of Brewmaster Vasili Gletsos prior to his departure to brew at Hill Farmstead. Once Gletsos departed, Shane Watterson took over as Brewmaster and watched the beer age and be bottled in 750mL bottles. As the beer was released a new Brewmaster was part of this as Ben Dobler now heads up the Brewing Ops at Laurelwood as Watterson moved onto his new brewing venture, Level Beer.

“Our Flanders Red Ale is blended and barrel aged. We use imported Belgian malt to get that deep amber hue and rich malt complexity,” states Cameron Murphy, Head Brewer at Laurelwood Brewing Co. in a release. “Each sip of Flanders is filled with floral and rich chocolaty flavors that are sure to not disappoint.”

This limited release barrel-aged beer took two years to produce. The Belgian-style red ale was fermented with Laurelwood’s house ale yeast and then soured in oak wine barrels for one year. Then the sour beer was blended with fresh beer, tank conditioned for another year, hand bottled and finally bottle conditioned. “This a very rare, and very special sour beer release from Laurelwood,” states Cameron.

Joining Flanders Red Ale as a holiday release is Laurelwood’s popular annual release, 2017 Santa’s Woody Bourbon Barrel Aged Barley Wine Ale. Also available at Laurelwood in 750mL bottles, this 10.5% ABV barleywine will keep you warm this winter season.

Also mark your calendars for a Laurelwood tradition as its Annual Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl returns on Thursday, December 15 to Portland, Oregon. Festivities will begin at 6:00pm at Spirit of 77 and then will make its way to Concordia Ale House, NePo 42, and ending at Chopsticks. Featured breweries include Laurelwood, pFriem Family Brewers, Everybody’s Brewing and Double Mountain Brewery. Transportation is provided so make sure to make it to Spirit of 77 on time. Prizes will be awarded for “best dressed”!