Orval

Brewed by Brasserie dOrval
Style: Belgian Ale
Florenville - Villers-d.-Orval, Belgium

330 ml bottle from LCBO, served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass. Tasted often before actually rating it.

App.: Cloudy amber with a large, loose off-white froth. Aroma: Strong sour cherries, wood, tang, funk and fruit, ginger, spicy, peppery, herbaceous, some light caramel, some citrus, bitter greens, yeast, very complex and thoroughly enjoyable. Palate: Medium body and fairly full but rounded effervescence. Flav.: Still plenty of sour cherries, quite fruity, more malt than the nose with some caramel and toffee notes, the funk-type notes are gone, the ginger is still there with other spiciness, woody and peppery, a touch of yeast; dry with some bitterness and a little alcohol, some malt to finish.

Quite the brew. Complex and always enjoyable. A triumph of Trappist brewing.

pours hazy tea amber colour, aroma is flavourised hops, oriental spices and strong yeast, sour plum and champagne. Taste - strong spices, ginger, orange skin, bitterness at finish, maybe it is the suggestion of the logo (with fish in the backgroud), but I can feel some saltiness.Pepperness, dryness, taste is evolving throughout drinking the glass down. Does not seem son dry and bitter at the end. I did not read anything about this beer before, not to expect any particular reception. I liked this moment. Rather sour/bitter hoppy trappist. Interesting

Classic example! Pours medium gold to copper with significantly large head. There is a slight noble spicy bitterness that offsets the residual sweetness. The finish is super dry from the bottle re-fermentation / Brettanomyces addition. Pleasantly sour finish and just a slight barnyard. A superb beverage!

~ Purchased this bottle at Shoreline Beverage in Huntington, NY. Pours a hazy orange color with a huge frothy head. There is a ton of bubbles in this brew. Hints of fruits and spices graze the nose quite well. The taste is complex, and the finish is bitter. Orval is definitely a superior beer when compared to most, but I’m sorry to say it is my least favorite of the Trappist offerings. ~ PS- it is worthy to note, this was bottled on 04/22/09, so I will let my other bottles age for while, then revisit this one at a later date.

330 ml bottle. Liège, Belgium. Hazy light brown colour with huge off-white head. Sweetish yeasty and spicy Belgian Ale. Flavour is also spicy and warming. Nothing incredible.

Pale Amber colour, with thick pillowy head. Has a strong fruit driven aroma, stone fruits and spice. Somehow though this beer just doesn’t do it for me, hence my low rating. There is no doubt it is an individual and iconic beer but in the end, its all about what you like.

POurs clear copper with a tall white head. Aroma of bread, clove, fruit, yeast and banana. Flavour is very spicy, fresh and sour, with notes of orange peels. Full palate very interesting. One of the dryest beers I have ever had. Pretty cool.

An exceptional, unique beer. The beer pours a beautiful shade of burnt orange-amber, medium, with a slight haze. The head is white and rocky and dissipates at a medium pace. The aroma is exquisite. The sour barnyard funk is just precisely right and blends wonderfully with the underlying Belgian ale notes. One of my favorite aspects of Orval is the perfect dryness. This nature even comes through in the aroma. There are fruit notes, apricots, grapes, lemons, figs, and earthy complexity. The flavor is just wonderful. I’m a bit of a sucker for a dry, delicious beer, and Orval pulls this off this combination better than nearly any other. The flavor is somewhere between a gueuze and a Belgian ale. Orval makes me imagine how good Belgian-style ales must have tasted before modernity imposed sanitary conditions and end of the sour beer as the norm. Orval is a world classic and everyone should try it.