belgian beer

Leffe Blonde is rather nice, but there are so many good Belgian beers... This website has quite a good guide: Belgo I am a fan of the Bierodrome, but have yet to sample everything.

I like hogarten. I like some of the fruit lambic, but the wheat is my favorite.

BeerAdvocate is a good source for info on all things beer. I'm a huge fan of St. Bernadus Abt. 12 (as well as the other St. Bernadus beers), Delirium Tremens, and Rodenbach Grand Cru. Other good ones to try if you're looking to sample the range of the style include Rochefort, Orval, and Chimay.

My favorite of the Trappist ales is Orval. Other good brews include Triple Karmeleit, Achouffe, Grimbergen blonde, Witbier Blanc de Bruges. Easy to find but still tasty is Chimay in all its varieties. I keep a tasting note file on Belgians, but alas I don't have it with me on the road this week.

Are there multiple brews from Orval and/or does the quality of this beer vary significantly from bottle to bottle?  In 2003 at a restaurant in Portland OR, I had an Orval that I'd rate as my best beer-drinking experience, bar none (I never saw the bottle, unfortunately).  I've since bought many bottles of "Orval Trappist Ale" at import shops here in CA trying for a repeat, all to no avail.  I've started to suspect it's all in my head.

Other than the temperature at which it is served, the most likely cause of beer tasting differently is where it is manufactured. The water used may affect the flavour, as may slight variations in the brewing process (this could also apply from batch to batch in the same brewery). This is less likely to affect mass-produced beers which mostly taste of chemicals anyway. I imagine that the Orval you had is brewed under licence in the US, so will taste different to that drunk in Belgium. Even imported beer can taste different; in the UK Becks make a selling point of their beer not being brewed under licence, but it still doesn't taste the same as in Germany - must be the travelling.