Impromptu Tasting: Orval

That's exactly what's on my mind; I can start with a case and then slowly replace bottles as I drink them. I probably should have been doing that all along, tbh.

 

Been trying to celebrate Orval Day the last few years so can't pass it up this year:





Not quite 2 years old, but then I don't think I've ever had a bad Orval either. Next time I'm out I'll have to pick up another bottle or 2 to prepare for next year!

 

Have the same vintage. Note the five year best by date (11/13/28) @JackHorzempa

Orval



Brewery: Orval
Beer: Orval
Style: Orval
Glass: Chimay (They gave me a few, step up to the plate Orval )

Creamy, rich, decadent. Most likely the "freshest" bottle I've had at 4 + months out, but drinking smooth, luxurious. Proper amount of clove, banana, hop bitterness, malt.

Glad @John_M sent the Spidey Signal earlier this week to allow me to pick this up Thursday. need to stock a few bottles once my cellar gets to a reasonable level.

Cheers!

 

And maybe the brewery should add a couple/few more years to that best by recommendation?

Cheers!

 

I love this beer. When it was being discontinued I bought as much as I could find, not quite a case. Been having a few each year. I have one more left after this one that I see.

Enjoy

 

Patience is a virtue

I would like to claim that the ‘old’ beer I am drinking today is due to being patient but the fact of the matter is that I ‘lost track’ of how old this bottle (and 7 others) is.

I have homebrewed a number of batches of an Orval clone and I even discussed a side-by-side tasting of one of those batches with a bottle of Orval in a past thread.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-weekend-96.667069/#post-7531395

Today’s beer is from a batch I brewed in 2017, making this beer seven years old. Will this beer still be a tasty beer? Well, to quote the wise owl: let’s find out.

The aroma is dominated by funk. The flavor follows the nose with a strong phenolic character. This beer is very tasty with nothing off about this beer.

I am very happy to report that ‘extra’ aging has had no negative impacts to this beer.

Cheers!



P.S. And for the interested student, my clone recipe is in this article:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Brettanomyces

 

This from 3/29/23 date on bottle
Young Brett, nice caramel, earthy hop bite
Beautiful, everlasting cap
Cheers

 

I’ll play. This might be my first Orval. Bottled June 2023.

My wife pointed out that’s a champagne glass. I have a Westvleteren chalice, but Inwantbto break that in with a Westy 12 before anything else.

 

Oh, I could have used the Le Chouffe glass instead of a champagne flat type? Rats.

 

The more I have this beer the more I enjoy it. Nothing to say about this beer that hasn't already been said. Cheers, all!

 

You just need a glass that can handle a very effervescent beer with a huge head, so the wider the better. The tulip could be made to work, but the nucleation point of the Duvel one can also work against you. I think you did fine.

 

24 July 2912 bottle. Purchased at a Wegmans in N Jersey. Huge pillowy head, intense Brett smell along with a bit of bubble gum and old wet bandaids. Taste is earthy funky dry after the finish, a big bitterness that hangs out. A great beer. I have one left that I saw. To me this was the best beer Green Flash made.

Besides Orval is there anything similar? I used to love Fear of a Brett planet but that was a bit more on the American pale ale with Brett with similarities to this beer.

Enjoy

 

Glad I was able to join the tasting. Bottle is from 2022.





I had my first Orval well over 15 years ago...Merchant du Vin had some kind of promo going where if you bought a bottle or two of Orval and mailed them some kind of promo tag hanging on the bottles then they'd send you a glass per tag. I sent them two and they sent me two free glasses. They're seldom used, but I do enjoy the odd bottle of Orval here and there. Today was a good excuse to pick up a bottle and use one of my glasses.

Cheers everyone.

 

Saw the thread while at Whole Foods earlier so I grabbed a bottle! Always try to join in!

Fresher bottle, bottled 11/13/2023.



Cheers gents!

 

It does not get much more iconic visually in the beer world than the Orval bottle and chalice. Beautiful complements to each other. Cheers to Henry Vaes.

 

How old is that Rayon Vert? I love that Green Flash basically went and made their own Orval a decade ago. Who else has done that?

 

About a year ago, I bought 6 bottles of Orval packaged on 03/11/22. I placed three of the bottles in a wine fridge at 55°, and the other three in a standard refrigerator at about 35°. The intent was to put the Brett to sleep in one set of bottles at 35°, but let it work in the other three warmer bottles.

I didn’t really expect there to be a big difference in taste, but I was wrong. Prior to serving, I chilled both bottles identically, but even at 40 degrees, the warm aged bottle foamed like crazy. The cold bottle poured pretty normally. Taste wise, the warm bottle was much drier, fruitier as well as bitter. I expected the cold, aged beer to be more bitter. While it was less bitter, the cold aged beer did have a lot more hop flavor. Can Brett break down hop flavors into bitterness? I don’t think so. I think the dryness of the warm aged beer accentuated the bitterness, but I’m not sure.

The fruitiness of the warm aged beer was a little overwhelming for my taste, but it would probably fit right in with the current trend towards tropically flavored beers. I expected to like the “more developed” beer that the brett was allowed to work on, but honestly, I preferd the cold age version better, which came off as a IPA with noble hops.