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Orval, beer, history and legend.

The name of this important abbey brewery "derives from an episode that I would bbe happened centuries ago in Matilde di Canossa. The countess sat on the banks of the river that supplied water to the monastery, carelessly dropped his wedding ring. Desperate addressed a prayer to the Virgin Mary asked that his jewel could be found. After a while a trout emerged at the surface having the ring in the mouth of Matilda. The countess said: "This place is a valley of gold" in French a "Val d'Or" which over the centuries has become Or-val.

The Real Story of Orval has its origin in 1070 d. C. when a group of Benedictine monks from Calabria decided to settle on the lands of the Count of Chiny Arnold, who gave them permission to build a monastic building. For unknown reasons of these pioneers abandoned the construction of the building and Otto's son Arnold replaced them with a small community of canons that lately the construction of the monastery. In 1124 the church was consecrated by vescoco of Verdun. But the canons were now dealing with the economic problems and were forced to join the order of Citeaux that in those years was expanding strongly. Then in 1132 came seven Cistercian monks who joined the canons. The Cistercians created over the years a very strong domain of agriculture and forestry, which assured their full subsistence allowing live by the principles of self-reliance contained in their Rule of Life. At the end of the twelfth century the Abbey of Orval seemed to prosper but difficult to wait centuries, in 1252 a fire almost razed to the ground in 1400 and 1500 wars between France and Burgundy before and between France and Spain then, it undermined the economic prosperity, in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War the troops of Marshal Chatillon burned it. Despite these difficulties, the Cistercian community was able to react strongly but had to surrender in 1793 when French revolutionary troops was totally destroyed the abbey. The survivors retreated in Luxembourg and in 1796 the community of Orval was suppressed completely. In 1926, however, the family offered Harenna the ruins of the monastery the order of Citeaux in the hope that the monastic life could flourish. Jean Baptiste Chautard, Abbot of Sept-Fons, accepted responsibility for the "re-foundation" and sent to a group Orval of monks. Very quickly a new monastery was born in 1948 and reconstruction was completed.
beer in the history of Orval:

probably from the early years of the abbey had its own brewery. Making beer was the norm in these parts of northern Europe is hardly conducive to growing grapes. The beer produced by this monastic community until 1931 was used to meet domestic demand also because it has nutritional properties that they deserve the name of "liquid bread." What happened in the '30s? The monks who needed to liquids (no alcohol ...) to rebuild the monastery decided to build a brewery to finance themselves, entrusting the management of it lay two brewers. The Belgian and German Pappenheimer Van Zande worked side by side for months, this unusual collaboration (try to ask a German what do you think of Belgian beer ... and vice versa :-)) was born beer Orval. The flavor? Here are the tasting sheet on this www.mondobirra.org :
Beer Trappist Abbey of Orval original has a unique style. From the choice of malts (they are used three different varieties), the types of hops used, up to the particular cultures of yeasts, nothing is left to case. The goal is "the gout d'Orval, which can be reached with three fermentations, the latter of which is in the bottle, giving rise to a deposit rich in B vitamins (natural fermentation in the bottle). Pinkish in color with orange highlights the Orval has intense aromas of ripe fruit, especially plums and prunes white. The mouth is dry, fresh and soft, fruity, rich tones of vegetables, with a background of bitter rhubarb and china, and a touch of licorice as the particular processes of hopping. It has a creamy foam, fresh and lingering aftertaste.