Pouring a brown-red in colour with a rapidly collapsing head, the yeasty, stewed fruit aromas give way to a lightly spiced and hop-dried flavour. The hop dryness continues into the finish, which may be this beer's most appealing feature.
Lacking in complexity due to some less than stellar yeast strains, I suspect, but far from unpleasant.
64
Pours a murky gold, with a rapidly disappearing head and no lacing on the glass whatsoever.
Sort of 'St. Clements' nose, with hints of lemon balm and maybe small orange citrus fruits. A predominantly fresh, floral flavour profile.
Crisp, refreshing, but a second class beer, really. Very little to hold the attention here.
58
A further Trappist offering from a brewery that offers a single commercial product, and boy, is it a good one.
Orval pours as a strikingly orange coloured brew, with a delicate, minimal head that nevertheless endures, great lacing down the glass, and a wonderful mouth-feel.
The orange and coriander seed nose continues into a gentle citrus profile of tangerines and sour candy peel supported by layer after layer of yeast complexity, with a mouth-watering finish. This beer exhibits complexity by the malt-shovel, and is a world-class beer by any standards. I feel somewhat bereft at not having another bottle in the house.
There is something of a cult of aging Orval for a year, with snootier bars offering young and aged versions. This all seems a little odd to me, as you could do the same thing with any number of Belgian beers to good effect, being both bottle-conditioned and being sufficiently strong to contain sufficient sugars for the yeast to continue to act upon and thereby alter the characteristics of the brew. A bit of a shrug, therefore, from me on that front.
For the record, as the brewery plays up to this somewhat and puts a date if bottling and BB date on each label, I drank this Orval when it was 6 months old.
94
Wow, did I like this beer. I probably poured it at 12-14 Celsius rather than the 8-10 degrees suggested, but I am exceedingly glad I did.
A woody nose of freshly-split logs and rosemary branches transforms into a taste of peach pits and just a hint of spicy green herbiness, dill weed perhaps. That sounds like a ghastly combination reading it back, but it works, and is quite delightful. I wouldn't necessarily drink more than one of most Dubbels, but could easily see myself enjoying a second bottle of this if I had one to hand.
A nicely balanced sour-sweet finish makes for a great end to a great beer.
92
Brown. Tastes like beer. Really, this did nothing for me. I'll put it on the 'to be sampled again' list as a false reading.
50
