Ölbeat 039: Orval

Brewery: Brasserie d'Orval
Country: Belgium
Style: Belgian Ale
Abv: 6,2 %
@RateBeer

Magic carpet ride in liquid form

What about the beer?
Colour is bubbly hazy copper brown with aggressively huge foamy white head. Aroma has deep sourness by vinegar and lemon and dry apple, and it reminds a bit of dry white wine. Taste begins with extreme sourness, which is strengthened by high carbonation. Fruits and lemon join the fun, followed by some overripe grapes and banana flavour. Bitter and yeast flavours get loose near the finish. Aftertaste is sandpaper-dry with some lemon-sourness on top.

Damn. That was a perfectly rich, fresh and versatile journey inside one beer. Unforgettably powerful sourness in the beginning, bitter fruit salad in the middle and breath-taking dryness in the end. The brewery really doesn't need any other commercial beer, if this is what they brew.

Ölbeat

Sour beer could be translated to grumpy people's music, but I'll abandon that idea. Rich fruits and Belgian yeast turn the sourness in my case to funky beats, fresh and soulful funk, if I think a little further. Since there's definitely something magical and nonunderstandable in Orval, this song matches with it perfectly:  

Stevie Wonder: Superstition (YouTube)

From the 1972 album Talking Book, written by Stevie Wonder.