It’s every beer lover’s dream, to jump in the Time Machine, spin the dials and travel back to discover what iconic brews were really like centuries ago: the IPAs of Victorian England, the porters and stouts of 18th-century London, and, when the church once held sway, the robust ales made by monks.
Starry, starry night. The light is low in Orval’s brew house, giving its trinity of copper-clad lauter tuns and kettle the glow of a late sunset, while pinpricks of light adorn the ceiling, the first evening stars. A simple wooden cross hangs on the wall. Colored glass panels featuring devotional scenes add to the sense of contemplation and transcendence. The whole effect is of something more than a place where beer is brewed. Read More…
Appearances can be deceptive. The place is an old stone barn amid a group of farm buildings on the edge of a village in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. This is an area of mellow stone, high hedges, winding lanes and long views over rolling hills. It’s the kind of landscape that is home to many a countryside-based U.K. craft brewer, just like Cotswold Brewing Company at whose base I have just arrived. We are after all in the country where ale is seen by a multitude of beer fans as the nation’s Bordeaux and Burgundy rolled into one pristine, foam-topped glass. As the poet A. E. Housman wrote: “Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink.” Read More…
