Abbey of New Clairvaux / Sierra Nevada -- Ovila Dubbel

In collaboration with The Abbey of New Clairvaux brewed and bottled by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.  Thanks to BevMo for sending me an email advertisement I bought this beer at Total Wine because their prices are much better in general.  Kiki even gave me coupon to sweeten up our visit to Total Wine.

From the bottle: "A collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and the monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, Ovila Abbey Dubbel brings the centuries-old monastery brewing tradition to America.  Ovila Abbey Dubbel features a complex and rich malty sweetness with hinds of caramelized sugar.  The aroma is a heady and layered mix of fruit and spice with hints of clove and black pepper from the unique Belgian-style yeast.  A portion of proceeds from this ale goes toward the restoration of the historic Santa Maria de Ovila chapter house on the grounds of the Abbey of New Clairvaux.  This medieval building stood for nearly eight centuries in Spain.  William Randolph Hearst purchased the monastery in 1931 and planned to use the stones for a castle even grander than his famous San Simeon.  Although Hearst's plans crumbled, these hisotric stones will rise again in a California Cistercian abbey." 

Ovila has its own website and there is a great video to check out.  Similar to Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary Ale, Ovila is a series.  This Dubbel is the first one and then eventually there will be a Saison (to be released in June 2011) and a Quad (to be released in November 2011).  The monks of Abbey New Clairvaux in Vina, California which (about a half hour north of Chico) came to Sierra Nevada Brewing wanting to collaborate to make a traditional Begian monk brewed beer.  William Randolph Hearst, being the superfluous bastard that he was, shipped these stones to San Francisco from the crumbling monastery in Spain that was built in the 1100s.  These stones came in wooden crates and were stored in Golden Gate park for several decades.   The city of San Francisco gave the stones to the monks in 1994  where they are slowly reconstructing this chapter house.

The monks at New Clairvaux are hardcore (and I don't mean with little boys).  They do the traditional daily prayers and support the monastery through manual labor in the vineyards.  They follow the same traditions monks have been doing for centuries.  The monks are about 60% done with the restoration of the chapter house using the sacred stones.  The Ovila chapter house stones are from the same order of the New Clairvaux monks so its cool that after 80 years,and all the years prior where Ovila was in ruins, they are returned to this tradition.

You can see from the photo that this is a dark beer and it comes in a bottle with a cork.  If you hold the glass up to light you can see that its more of a dark caramel color rather than straight black color like Guinness.  The ABV is 7.5% but it doesn't taste that high in alcohol.  The taste is very malty with some toffee flavors that make this beer seem sweet.  Its not really bitter or hoppy.  The linger is fairly short but it still has plenty of body.  When I poured the glass it was a little foamy, but as I drank it there wasn't really any lacing left on the glass.  This dubbel is quite a departure from what we're all used to from Sierra Nevada.  Their pale ale is famously hoppy, but this beer takes a completely different direction.

 The good: tastes great; obviously well researched for the style; has a cool bottle; some of the money is going to help the monks finish this historic building; its a big enough bottle you can share (or have more for you)

The bad: this beer is on the pricey side

Obviously Ovila dubbel is a limited release.  Even though I prefer hoppier beers I can appreciate that this malty beverage is high quality and meant to be special.

Cheers!