Wallonia, Belgium
Brasserie d’Orval
Trappist brewery producing a single beer, dry-hopped and refermented with Brettanomyces so that it changes substantially over its shelf life.
Also known as Orval brewery, Abbaye Notre-Dame d’Orval.
Orval is close to unique among widely-available beers in that it is deliberately designed to be a different beer at three months and at three years, as the Brettanomyces slowly works through the remaining sugars and the dry-hop character fades.
Why it matters
The clearest commercially-available demonstration that a beer can be intended to change rather than merely to survive.
Details
| Founded | 1931 |
|---|---|
| Where | Wallonia, Belgium |
| Status | Operating |
Reference beers
BeerHQ carries only the products that anchor something. This is not the brewery’s full range.
Styles it is associated with
- Belgian pale ale — An everyday Belgian ale, toasty and biscuity, with restrained yeast character compared with the stronger Belgian styles.
Traditions
- Belgian abbey and Trappist brewing — Strong, highly attenuated, bottle-conditioned ales built on expressive yeast and candi sugar, produced in or licensed by monastic communities.
Other breweries in Belgium
3 Fonteinen · Abbaye de Leffe · Brasserie d’Achouffe · Brasserie Dupont · Brouwerij Boon · Brouwerij Bosteels · Brouwerij Hoegaarden · Brouwerij Huyghe
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.