Orval-inspired beers?

Orval is my favorite beer. I have a homebrew recipe that's pretty close, if you ever need it.

 

I really like Orval, for too long I skipped over it looking for more new better excitement but glad I started picking it up a few times a month at my favorite bottle bar which always has it. Really has blown a few people away that really love their IPA's just how much flavor this beer packs without that American style hop bomb scent. Tool/Mikkeller collaboration Ov-ral - a DIPA with brett, (as mentioned above), also gets my vote as being somewhat similar, but a bit more of the dry hop presence and that hard to identify brett yeast coming through the malts...

 

Think that puppy needs to be several years old to be in the discussion

 

When I was stationed in Germany, I could drive over the hypermarkets in France & buy Orval cheap. The only problem was it was so fresh the yeast really never seemed to be in full force. Maybe if I had let it sit a year or two it would've delivered what I tasted a decade prior. Seemed to be the same issue with the Chimnay. But it was still a nice diversion from the lockstep taste of most German biers I drank them all prior any of them coming in to their peak. Live & learn...

 

It's been a while since I had Orval and I'm definitely gonna go pick up another bottle soon. I don't really remember how it tastes but is it a hoppier Belgian beer and meant to be consumed fresher?

 

Boulevard Smokestack Saison-Brett.

If not explicitly so on the bottle or from brewery, at least in appearance and taste. Lovely brew!

 

It has been my personal experience that Orval is 'better' with 6+ months of age; the Brett character is not evident in fresh bottles of Orval.

Cheers!

 

The Mikkeller/Achorage AK Alive collab was an homage to Orval, and was pretty close (although I think it was a saison base, but the dusty and fruity funk flavors are almost spot on.)

 

It is like the great grand daddy of IPA's, not hoppy in the sense of the modern US IPA, but dusty and funky that gets your taste buds going in the same direction as a refreshing IPA does. So I think it has character long after a fresh dated bottle, maybe years even.

 

I would love to try a fresher bottle of Orval, to see it at a hoppier newer stage versus the aged funkier stage I've had it in. I'd even like to try a side by side of it, to see which one I like better. I doubt I could ever find a truly fresh Orval in the US, though. Gotta go to Belgium for that.

 

"I doubt I could ever find a truly fresh Orval in the US, though. Gotta go to Belgium for that." That would be my guess.

Cheers!

 

Well I see you are in NY, if there was a place to get fresh Orval in the states it would probably be in Philadelphia - how about it Philly? Can we get a bottle check? The date code is clearly marked.

And from Orval's website, they only have it two months before shipping it out. Adding the 2nd brett yeast at bottling with no priming sugars kinda implies to me that Orval needs a few months to settle in for that taste we identify. So what is the fresh hop taste the brewer is talking about? I want me some of that!

http://www.orval.be/en/58/How-Orval-beer-is-made?

 

Mikkeller Arh Hvad. I didn't think it was all that good.

 

Add Wicked Weed's new beer, Reverence, to the list. It's a Brett Pale Ale aged in Cabernet barrels for 6 months and was brewed as an homage to Orval.