Orval: A Study on Tradition, Innovation, & Craftsmanship
There are not many breweries on this planet that evoke more reverence than Brasserie d’Orval. The Trappist brewery in the south of Belgium, just a few scant miles from the French border, is not as old as many of its other brewery compatriots but has captured the attention of drinkers from around the world thanks to its complex pale ale, served in a teardrop bottle.
The abbey where the brewery is located is steeped in lore, which plays heavily into the mystique and wonder of the liquid. The recipe is relatively straightforward, but the beer is complex, aging over its suggested five-year shelf life, changing as the Brettanomyces within matures. The beer is simply known as Orval and it is pleasing, vexing, and worshipped.
Homebrewers will attempt to recreate this beer themselves and professional breweries like Goose Island have spent years working on clones or homages to the beer. Some are successful, but like any copy there is always something missing. It lacks the spirituality.
Finding the real deal on store shelves or behind bartops and then enjoying in a chalice is an escape from the ordinary, and a study on tradition, innovation, and craftsmanship.
While beer and wine were made at the abbey going back to the 1600s, the current brewery was commissioned in 1931 and began shipping beer the following year. There have been upgrades to the system over the decades, but the space is a shrine to the time, it is not overly large and in the tradition with its Trappist roots, is modest. There are artistic flourishes around the copper kettles, like stained glass and mosaic work, but the rest of the brewery is the tangle of pipes, hoses, and machinery found the world over. The ingredients used are the very same that are found around the world.
It is the final result that helps Orval stand apart from the rest. The style can be called a Belgian pale ale and as I discovered during a visit to the brewery late last year it is a combination, according to my guide, that includes Pilsner and caramel malt that comes from the United States and Great Britain, and the hops (pellets are used in the boil and whole cone for dry hopping) come from France, Slovenia, and Germany (Hallertau, Strisselspalt, and Styrian Golding). Each batch uses about 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg) of candi syrup in a 7,400-gallon (280-hL) batch.
The water comes from the grounds of the abbey.
“We have no problem with water here,” my guide for the day, Claude Roulant, said.
To talk about Orval is to talk of the water, specifically the legend of Mathilda of Tuscany, who was said to have visited the grounds when she dropped her wedding ring into a pond. It was returned, the story says (which is also depicted on the beer’s label) by a trout, to which the woman exclaimed “Truly this place is a Val d’Or.” She dedicated the necessary funds to help build the monastery.
To walk the grounds of the monastery, which dates back to 1070, is a step back in time, and a humbling experience. Indeed its grand structures are visited by tens of thousands of people each year who come for reflection or history. The brewery is only opened a few times per year to visitors, and other tours must be made by appointment.
The brewery, Trappist in designation, employs fewer than 40 workers and only mashes in six times per week — four times on Tuesday and two times on Wednesday, my guide said. Last year the brewery made around 47,500 barrels. In all, 85% of Orval produced remains in Belgium. The rest is divided up among the other countries that import it. The brewer, Anne Francoise Pyparert, declined an interview.
Much about the overall brewing process is standard. It’s a 90-minute boil before the sugar is added. But there is a two-step fermentation process, where Brettanomyces bruxellensis is introduced along with a house yeast that helps to define the beer.
The first fermentation happens for a period of four days where the beer is held between 59–72 °F (15–22 °C). It is then transferred to horizontal tanks where it is held for up to three weeks. During this time, each tank has nine bags, each weighing 26.5 lbs. (12 kg), of dry hops added.
Later, it is worth pointing out, that when the bags are removed they are dried completely and then used as fuel. “Nothing goes to waste here,” my guide said, noting that spent grain is sent to local dairy farms that produced more than 300 tons of cheese last year.
The beer is then adjusted for strength depending on its destination country (in Belgium it is served at 6.2% ABV and in the United States at 6.9% ABV) and bottled or kegged for local consumption. “One last drop of sugar and a drop of Brettanomyces” is added to each bottle before it is sealed for bottle conditioning. Orval is best consumed within five years of being packaged and ideally is enjoyed at cellar temperature.
In my experience as a reporter, I’ve found that many Belgian breweries are cagey about talking specifics about a beer in their portfolio. That a tour guide at Orval was so readily giving up much about the process and ingredients demonstrates that while they take their craft seriously, they are not overly concerned that it will be replicated by others.
There is no tasting room at the brewery itself, but a restaurant a short stroll down the road from the abbey, the A l’Ange Gardien, is the closest place to have a chalice of the beer and the only place to drink Orval Vert, the smaller ABV version of the beer that is brewed for the monks.
Orval Vert is available on draft only at 4.2% ABV and is served in a chalice that has green lettering, rather than blue or gold. Where traditional Orval changes over time and can be hoppy or bursting with juicy fruit notes, or spicy and leathery from the Brettanomyces, green Orval is snappy, hop-forward, with lemony citrus and hay.
There are recipes inspired by Orval that exist and that can likely bring great joy to the homebrewer and imbiber (such as the one we’ve provided to the right), but there is a strong argument to be made that Orval is best left to tradition and, if possible, enjoyed at the source.
Ode to val d’or
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.056 FG = 1.002
IBU = 33 SRM = 9 ABV = 6.9%
Orval pours orange-brown with a big, rocky head. The very spritzy levels of carbonation with a slight sour note and distinctive Brett character make the beer feel prickly on the tongue. Orval is dry and has little hop bitterness or flavor, although it is the only Trappist ale to be dry hopped. This recipe creates a beer similar to the Orval beer distributed to the US with a higher ABV.
Ingredients
8.5 lbs. (3.8 kg) Pilsner malt
1.3 lbs. (0.6 kg) English light crystal malt (40 °L)
2.2 lbs. (1 kg) candi syrup (1 °L)
4.4 AAU Hallertau-Hersbrücker hops (60 min.) (1.1 oz./31 g of 4% alpha acids)
3.3 AAU Styrian Goldings hops (60 min.) (0.66 oz./19 g of 5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Styrian Goldings hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g of 5% alpha acids)
0.3 oz. (8 g) Strisselspalt whole cone hops (dry hop)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Hallertau-Hersbrücker whole cone hops (dry hop)
1⁄4 tsp. yeast nutrients
White Labs WLP510 (Bastogne Belgian Ale) or Wyeast 3522 (Belgian Ardennes) or LalBrew Abbaye Belgian Ale yeast
Wyeast 3112 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) or White Labs WLP650 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Heat 3.6 gallons (13.5 L) of water to 163 °F (73 °C), stir in crushed grains and mash at 150 °F (65 °C). Mash for 60 minutes raise grain bed temperature to 162 °F (72 °C). Hold for 15 minutes. Recirculate until wort is clear, then begin running wort off to kettle. Sparge with 170 °F (77 °C) water to collect roughly 7 gallons (26.5 L). Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding hops as indicated. Add yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left in boil and candi syrup at the end of boil. Cool wort down to 59 °F (15 °C), aerate, and pitch the Belgian yeast strain. Fermentation temperature can be slowly raised up to 72 °F (22 °C) to finish. Rack to secondary when active fermentation is complete and add Brettanomyces and dry hops. Let condition for 3 weeks at 59 °F (15 °C) before bottling. Condition warm for 3 weeks in bottles before serving.
Ode to val d’or
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.056 FG = 1.002
IBU = 33 SRM = 9 ABV = 6.9%
Ingredients
4 lbs. (1.8 kg) Pilsen dried malt extract
1.3 lbs. (0.6 kg) English light crystal malt (40 °L)
2.2 lbs. (1 kg) candi syrup (1 °L)
4.4 AAU Hallertau-Hersbrücker hops (60 min.) (1.1 oz./31 g of 4% alpha acids)
3.3 AAU Styrian Goldings hops (60 min.) (0.66 oz./19 g of 5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Styrian Goldings hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g of 5% alpha acids)
0.3 oz. (8 g) Strisselspalt whole cone hops (dry hop)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Hallertau-Hersbrücker whole cone hops (dry hop)
1⁄4 tsp. yeast nutrients
White Labs WLP510 (Bastogne Belgian Ale) or Wyeast 3522 (Belgian Ardennes) or LalBrew Abbaye Belgian Ale yeast
Wyeast 3112 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) or White Labs WLP650 (Brettanomyces bruxellensis) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Heat 5 gallons (19 L) of water to 163 °F (73 °C). Steep crushed grains in a grain bag as the water heats. When the temperature hits 170 °F (77 °C) remove the grains. Off heat, stir in dried malt extract until it is fully dissolved. Turn heat back on and bring wort to a boil. Add the first charge of hops and begin the 60-minute boil. Follow the rest of the all-grain recipe, being sure to top off to 5 gallons (19 L) after chilling the wort.
