All About Beer Magazine • Volume 27 Number 5 • November 2006

AAB: How did you get your start in brewing?

J-MR: It's a long time ago. I was intent to be a brewer when I was 12. I already appreciated beer and I told my father who said "It's a false road: you will be an alcoholic." I said "Not necessarily: I want to be a brewer and I will do that." So I started choosing the education to be a brewer

AAB: At 12? What attracted you to brewing at that age?

J-MR: I was already tasting beer a lot. From the beginning, at the midday meal we got low alcoholic beer, tafel beer every day. And on the Saturday evenings in the winter, my father and my mother drank gueuze without sugar and my sister and me, we got gueuze with one piece of sugar. So, it's my parents' fault if I am now a brewer because we got beer when we were very young.

AAB: Did you study brewing as an academic subject?

J-MR: Yes, and afterwards I studied economics.

AAB: Beer and business. And was Orval the first place you worked?

J-MR: No, oh no. I started working in 1972 at Palm Breweries in the Flemish part of Belgium for nine years. Afterwards I went to Lemot owned by Bass Breweries.

In 1985, I was not far from Orval with one of my daughters. She spent a few days and I was preparing some meals for the group. Everybody was intent to visit the abbey. I went with my daughter and afterwards I asked to visit the brewery. I'd never been in Orval before, so it was for me a discovery.

I was invited by a monk to visit the brewery and when we were in the brewhouse he told me they were searching for a brewing engineer. The people who were with us on the visit told me "You heard what the monk said to you?" and I said "Yes, but I am not interested" And they replied "But if you come here, you can have a good life and make good beer." We were living in Brussels. I asked my wife and she agreed that it was possible for her. I called the brewery and said "OK, I am your man if you like." Three months after I was visited brewery, I started my job, just over 20 years ago.

AAB: When did brewing begin at Orval?

J-MR: It was in 1932.

AAB: How many brewers have there been?

J-MR: I don't know, but I believe about five. The history of the brewery is not very well known. It's not necessary: it makes part of the legend.

AAB: Like the fish and the ring... And you have just one Orval beer?

J-MR: We also make a beer for the monks with an alcohol content of about 3.5, but it's quite easy. I take Orval, I add fifty percent water, some sugar, some yeast and we put it in the bottle and that's it, that's the monk's beer.

AAB: Orval is only available in the bottle?

J-MR: And there is some draft beer...for me. You know we have a bar, and in this bar we have draft. It's only for us and some suppliers or somebody who buys the beer.

AAB: Orval has the greatest hop character of the Trappist beers. What are Orval's most important characteristics?

J-MR: Highest hop character and bitterness, very high drinkability—that's the most important thing you can say about Orval.

AAB: And alcohol content?

J-MR: It's 6.2, not very high but...enough. And high CO2 content, hop aroma and, after months, the Brettanomyces aroma, but you need six months fermentation in the bottle before you get this aroma.

We tasted some Orval yesterday evening at the Zig Zag Cafe (Seattle): one which was from November [about five months old] had no Brett taste and we also tasted a beer eight months old and it had really great flavor.

AAB: So you should wait?

J-MR: Honestly, I prefer the beer that is very young, which means two or three months refermentation in the bottle. But most people prefer the beer after six months or one year. I prefer the young beer because the hop aroma is very fresh. We use a lot of hops in the lagering tanks, we add some for dry hopping.

AAB: What kind of hops to you use?

J-MR: German, and Slovenian hops, Styrian Golding, Hallertau. From the dry hopping you get a hop smell, it's quite nice but it has to be quite young; after some time, it is replaced with yeast and bread components.

AAB: Why does the Brett character emerge so late?

J-MR: We add the Brettanomyses just before bottling, a very small amount. We also add at the same time Saccromyces, the common yeast we use for the main fermentation and so the Brett doesn't start its job before the Saccromyces finishes. The Saccromyces uses the sugar and when the Saccromyces can't use the sugar which is more complicated, the Brett starts the fermentation of the more complicated sugars.

AAB: What is your favorite combination of Orval and food?

J-MR: Orval with mussels. I don't eat a lot of meat, I prefer fish. With beefsteak it is good, I believe...but I don't like steak. Cooking mussels with Orval: it gives the mussels a special taste, they become plump with the taste of beer.

AAB: What is unusual about working in a living monastery?

J-MR: That you are working in a living monastary. We see the monks when we have to speak...have meetings about money, but we don't see them very much.

AAB: So there aren't monks working in the brewery?

J-MR: No, no. In the fifties there were two monks working in the brewery: one in the lab and one responsible for production, but they stopped working in the seventies.

AAB: How do you relax when you are not brewing?

J-MR: Gardening, I have a big garden. Trees, flowers, vegetables, so I have a lot of work. I live about eight kilometers from the brewery.

AAB: What is the role of the brewery in the community?

J-MR: It's owned by the community, they are the boss, they care for their brewery. They are not really involved in the production,but they are still interested in their brewery and the cheese factory. I am also responsible for the cheese factory.

There are fewer monks compared with twenty years ago. Twenty years ago there were more than 30 and now there are about 15, so it's impossible for them to be involved in the daily production of the beer and the cheese. So they asked me about five years ago to be involved with the cheese production and I accepted. It's about the same process—but barley is replaced by milk.

AAB: Does the cheese have a long history?

J-MR: Older than the brewery. They started producing cheese during 1922, a very small amount at the beginning. Then, 12 years ago they decided to renew the equipment and now it's very modern, like the brewery. Now there's more automation, to make the product more consistent.

AAB: Is the cheese widely distributed?

J-MR: Only in Belgium. It's very difficult to distribute food in the United State, otherwise I would bring some on the plane, but I would have problems with the customs.

AAB: Do you have a philosophy of beer and brewing?

J-MR: Keep it easy. I think American brewers get it wrong, because they are always complicating the process. It's incredible: I cannot understand it. Everybody thinks in the US the process is complicated but it's not true, there's only one secret—keep it easy.