International Orval Day

Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval

The 23rd of March 2025 was this year's International Orval Day. Why have an Orval day? Well, as often is the case, strangely for a specific Belgian beer though, the celebratory day originated in the USA in 2015 with the US importer of Orval, Merchant du Vin, holding an Orval promotion in a store in Ohio, calling  it "Orval Day." Because of the success of the promotion, the importer organised a national Orval Day the following year, which has developed into an International Orval Day since, held in March very year (hopculture).

The Abbey at Orval is a relatively new abbey, rebuilt by 1948 by the sites of earlier abbeys, the remains of the previous abbey which was burnt down by French revolutionary troops in the late 18th century, remain adjacent. The name Orval comes from a legend that Countess Matilde of Tuscany lost her wedding ring when it fell into a well, she prayed, and it was returned to her by a trout with the ring in its mouth, she proclaimed, "Truly this is a Val d'Or!" - Valley of Gold, and she established a monastery there in gratitude. The photograph above is from the VisitArdenne website, to which I extend my thanks, oh yes, and the Ardennes is going to feature a wee bit in another blog I have planned to share very soon. 😉

So, yesterday I visited the The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog), because I happened to know that Oliver there sells Orval, consequently logical to me. 😁 Orval is a trappist ale brewed in the Brasserie d'Orval at the Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval, the brewery was founded in 1931 during the rebuilding of the abbey. Lay persons carry out the work in the abbey's brewery; the abbey also being known for it's cheese, the production of which I believe monks carry out.

Orval is a 6.2% ale, ostensibly, as there are more than one fermentation processes in it's development, including being bottle conditioned, so no bottled beer is exactly the same! And unique among Belgian beers, it is dry-hopped, thanks to the early influence of a brewer who had worked in England. Indeed, the hops used are Kent Styrian Golding (hopslist) and German Hallertau-Hersbruck (hopslist); I believe their first head brewer was German.

The colour is more golden than my photograph above shows, but with an orange hue, I think including some of the yeast at the bottom of the bottle was influential in the image, so a wee bit cloudy. The beer is dry and slightly tart with a bitter finish, and has a subtle spicy/fruity aroma. My taste has changed since I first drank Orval when I used to visit my brother in Brussels 20-30 years ago, and at the time this was my immediate panic buy when I entered a bar, always with numerous beers on it's beer menu. I did go off it a bit after tasting Westmalle Tripel, for example, but drinking it again, I really enjoyed it, cheers to Orval Day! 😁

Looking back at Ashley Routson's book (blog), she states that Orval is "arguably the best beer on the planet." I may argue with that myself, but she's right that it's pretty damn good, cheers!

Westmalle Christmas Gift: Delayed Review, Sorry!

Trappist beers are brewed by Trappist monks within the walls of a Trappist monastery, this one founded in 1794, becoming an abbey in 1836, and Westmalle beers, brewed at the Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle (brewing since 1836 - website), are up there amongst the best beers of Belgium. Although the monks no longer brew the beers themselves, they are still in overall charge of the brewery, ensuring tradition is upkept, and pure ingredients used, their own water, 100% barley malt, hops, and yeast from their own culture. All these are bottle-conditioned.

I had never tasted the just 4.8% Westmalle Extra before, but this light golden blonde is based on the ale recipe first brewed by the monks for their own consumption in 1836. OK, not as pronounced a flavour and impact as the double the strength Tripel described below, which means it is a bit more of a 'supping' beer. But it is recognisably a Westmalle beer, with a Westmalle aroma, and hints of banana and pineapple in the taste, very nice!

The penultimate beer I drank was the 7.0% Dubbel, a dark deep red colour, first brewed nearly 100 years ago in 1926. This has a rich dried dark fruit aroma, and at first tastes slightly sour, then sweet, with malt and dark fruits, but dries out with a slightly bitter finish, very decent.

The best 'til last, and my favourite regularly available Belgian ale, Westmalle Tripel (image immediately above), which I have written about many times before (eg blog). The Tripel, is a 9.5% golden beer, with a subtle fruitiness and quite dry and bitter finish, quite frankly, excellent! There are a number of bars in Brussels where I would always drink this, the waiting staff in the magnificent Le Cirio in Brussels, by la Bourse, always taking care not to disturb the sediment, but leaving the bottle for people to add the sediment if they so wished. Indeed, the owner of the bar closest to where my brother used to live always called me "Monsieur Westmalle", but that bar, sadly, is no longer open, the owner having retired.

You will appreciate just how much I loved this Christmas present brought back from Belgium by my brother, he knows what I like, the beer and the glass, cheers Dan! 👍

Pubs Still Closed: What to do?!?

So what can we do? Obvious really, not as good as drinking cask conditioned ales, but there is some interesting stuff in bottles and cans, so yesterday I tried...

St Austell (website) Proper Job, usually a 4.5% ale from the cask, but a 'beefed up' 5.5% in the 'bottle conditioned' version, as close as you're going to get to cask conditioned, in the circumstances. Yes, this is a pale hoppy beer; they call it 'Cornish IPA' and it does what it says on the label! Refreshing aroma and taste, with big citrus flavours, and a hint of tropical fruits, not surprising when you consider that the hops used in the brewing process are Willamette, Cascade and Chinook, a lovely mix. Actually, my recent tastings of this from cask have been disappointing (6-8 weeks ago), and friends have said similar, but this was very decent indeed.

And Meantime Brewing (website) London Porter, a 5.5% 'porter' brewed for Marks & Spencer. This was a reddish brown colour, chocolate in the aroma and a hint of chocolate in the taste, and roasted barley there too. This was quite thin, refreshing though, but a disappointment there was little body considering the strength. I would suggest this is more like a 'thin' stout rather than a porter (for opinion see older blog), Okay, but a wee bit disappointing... 

I shall be drinking some more of the bottled Proper Job very soon, cheers!