Orval

While we live in Belgium we hope to visit all of the Trappist Breweries. A Trappist beer is one that is brewed in self sustaining abbey by monks that maintain strict adherence to fundamental brewing rules. Of the only seven Trappist Breweries in the world, six of them are in Belgium (the 7th is in the Netherlands); they are Achel, Westvleteren, Orval, Rochefort, Chimay, and Westmalle.

 One weekend in September we went to the Orval monastery to tour the brewery. It is open only ONE weekend every year and we made reservations in May to hold our spot. I was lucky to stumble upon a fabulous blog a girl did detailing all the things she did while in Belgium, and this was one of them.  I luckily stumbled upon it in time to make the reservation!  Thanks to her for the photo and description above! (She's from Atlanta, so maybe we'll run into each other some day.....and I want to make sure I give her proper credit!)

Orval is located in the southwest tip of Belgium, very near Luxembourg and France. We thought we might be able to tackle Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge) while we were down there.....and we thought wrong!  This was an all day event, between the time it took to get there, tour the brewery, eat lunch, and tour the abbey.

The monastery grounds were breathtaking. It cost us nothing to make the reservation and tour the place. We reserved 4 tickets, so we invited Maureen and Jacob to join us.  The girls (Grace, Audrey and Autumn didn't need tickets!) 

They even provided beer (OJ or water for the girls) and cheese at the end of the tour with souvenir Orval bottle openers.

 

 This type of independent self-guided tour would never be allowed to take place in the United States. We were free to wander and get up close and personal with the factory inner-workings.  We were inches away from the bottles whizzing by. 

 We even saw the glue oozing out of the label machine. We were all a little in awe, especially since we've all been in Breweries before and have never been so close.  If someone sneezed, it would have been bottled!!

My camera ran out of juice while we were looking at the abbey, but of course Maureen got some wonderful shots you can check out over at her blog:  Orval Brewery & Abbey

Here are a few that I was able to get: