02/20/2026
New Beer/ Very Old Beer
Funk Soul Brother 6.0% ABV Belgian Style ESB brewed with Brett.
I think Orval may be my favorite beer. I visited the Abbey in Belgium to taste the beer at the source. I once judged at the World Beer Cup with the brewmaster, and asked him for some advice on how to brew a beer like it. I often joke that its actually and English ESB that has been deliberately contaminated with Brettanomyces yeast. My questions to the Orval Brewmaster helped confirm my thoughts. So 7 years ago I tried an experiment. At the time Drop In brewed an English ESB called Parklife. I added some Brettanomyces yeast culture to it, scavenged from a couple of Orval bottles and set it aside in the walk in cooler. Honestly, as time went by, things got put on top of other things, and the keg got buried. Well we just discovered that keg and hooked it up to the tap. The result was the closest beer to Orval I have ever tasted. Not as great as the original by any measure. Its impossible to replicate the best beer in the World in a tiny Vermont brewery. Plus decades of devotion to achieving perfection, in order to honour God, by the monks who brew the beer, is something I can never duplicate. We have a single keg on tap at Drop In Brewing in Middlebury. Come by to enjoy the best attempt at duplicating this classic you'll ever try.
