Orval

Bright orange colour. Light beige head is very thick, and often makes fun mountainous shapes. The room fills with perfume, medicine, noble hops, tangerines, horseblanket. Fun stuff. Bitter body brings a strong citric component, and these are complemented by warming pale malts, an underpinning of alcohol and a sour, bretty finish. Vibrant, funky, alive. With amples doses of malt, hops, yeast, brett, alcohol, a nature that is challenging yet comforting, a potency that can satisfy with one bottle or with four, Orval is truly a pleasure for all of your senses. In short, Orval is beer.

One of my absolute favorites, i always have a few bottles of this at home. The yeast, the sourness, the hops it’s all just in perfect harmony, and that at only around 6%. Superb. Aging: Compared a fresh sample with 2 and 5 year old samples. In time, Orval seems to lose its bitterness, while the aroma becomes more sour. It becomes smoother, but less outspoken. I personally prefer a fresh bottle compared to the aged ones, although imho a 5 year old one is better than a two year old. Perhaps aging more than 5 years will make it better, but for the time being i’ll stick to drinking fresh ones :-).

Spicy aroma, some bubblegum, caramel, malty, hoppy. Light brownish color. Not really ’strong’ ale. Sweet taste, dry. Very extraordinary beer. Balance reaching perfection.

This is definently one of my favourites Re-rate, 18 Sept 2002 I had a 1 year old Orval yesterday. When I opened it, it went fissssss a long time. Then I put ti tin the glass, I was very surprised, as the color was clear, later came the remains of the yeast, and the known orval colour was back..... This beer is my first 5...

Slightly hazy orange/amber in colour. Mountains of lasting rocky, frothy, and creamy beige coloured head. Very lively with lots of tiny bubbles. The aroma starts to permeate the air the second that satisfying "pffft" from opening the cap happens. Persimmon, orange blossom, minty, yeasty, and bandaid (I never understood what that meant until now) aroma, with a hint of homemade brown bread. Slightly candyish sweet, dry cereal, and slight salty initial flavour, building to a mediciny, perfumed, floral, dry hoppy bitter finish. Medium to full body, dry, refreshing, numbing (in a good way) mouthfeel. Fantastic. Brilliant. I had incredibly high expectations for this. Most of the time, that spells disappointment. But this was every bit as good as I expected and beyond. (10/5/9/5/19)

Re-rate, Dec. 14, 2004: After the first bottle (rated above) I was tempted to give it my first perfect 5, but something in the flavour held me back. Second bottle a few months later, seemed to have a little alcohol kick that made me think that 9/10 for flavour was about right. Third bottle another few months later I was tempted to up the rating but since bottle #2 wasn’t quite there I hesitated. One small sample almost a year later and there’s no doubt. If I was told I had to choose only one beer I could drink for the rest of my life, this would be it.

This is it! The reason I chose to delve deeper into all beers Belgian. It’s bottle, color, head, aroma, taste, and long bitter aftertaste are just unequalled in my book! THE Trappist ale...just wish it wasn’t so gosh-darned $$! One of life’s great luxuries!

Looked and smelled like a German dark wheat. Did not taste like one. This was the last bottle of Orval at the store, so I figured I had better grab it (not an old bottle, though - exp. 10/08/06). This definitely has nothing in common with the other Trappists that I’ve tried, and the first few sips had me agreeing with the raters who disliked this one. It didn’t get a whole lot better. Dry and thin (for a Trappist), and loaded with pepper and bitterness. It’s probably an acquired taste - I’ll try again when the store gets some more bottles. RERATE 4/2/02 (exp. 6/12/06): Not so peppery this time, and more drinkable. Bitter, bitter, bitter, and the dryness makes it seem rather thin. Leaves a slightly parched feeling in my mouth. Maybe it’s growing on me, but I still don’t love it. 4/11/02: Third bottle. Have to say that this stuff becomes addictive. 5/13/02: Now number two on my desert island list. Some beers really grow on you. 7/20/02: Did I really say that this smelled like a wheat beer? My RateBeer education continues...

A ton of head on the pour, very long lasting. Fantastic aroma, fruity (banana being the easiest for me to pick out) and spice. Amazing depth of flavor, no noticeable alcohol at all. It really gets huge marks for the aroma from me. The best I've ever experienced. Re-rate October 2004. Had to knock it up...it's simply got everything I want in a beer...I've never had one and wished I had anything else at the moment, and for me that's perfection.