Fantôme Automne

Brewed by Brasserie Fantôme
Style: Saison
Soy-Erezée, Belgium

Serve in Tulip

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beautiful deep coppery orange color, huge froth of a head dissapates to wispy lace clingies. sour aroma. interestly enough, no alcohol in the nose and not that much in the flavor. as for flavor, oddly soured spiced cherry lemon. and cherries and lemons don’t go well together imho. i’m not getting any cinnamon unlike some other raters and not really any herbal flavor either. alright. that’s it for me. no more saisons and no more rogues.

UPDATED: OCT 22, 2005 2004 or 2005 bottle. Head is initially large, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy dark amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately yeasty (barnyard, cobwebs), lightly hoppy (flowers, herbs), moderately malty (toasted grain, cookie) with notes of clove, twigs, grass, country air, lemon zest, hay. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter, moderately acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately bitter, moderately acidic. Medium body, velvety/watery texture, lively carbonation. If anyone needed any evidence that Dany changes his recipes with virtually every batch, here’s an obvious one. Two or three years ago, a sample I had was golden colored and very tripel-like (see old rating below). Now we have a dark amber brew that’s a bit closer to, say, Pissenlit. This sample was in amazing condition, which makes me think it’s a 2004 batch that’s coming into its prime. Either that, or Dany got it spot-on for the 2005 batch. Absolutely stunning.

2002 bottle? sampled 10/2002. Head is initially huge, frothy, rocky, white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy medium yellow, dense small particles, bottle conditioned. Aroma is moderately yeasty (barnyard, cobwebs), moderately hoppy (lemon, flowers, herbs), with a note of coriander, hints of clove and pineapple. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately bitter, moderately acidic. Finish is moderately bitter, moderately acidic. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation.

Light orange body, great head, spicy, citrusy and yeasty nose. Cork fell apart during opening, but the beer seems okay. Tart and a touch bitter, with substantial yeast character and an appealing dryness, with a good dose of spice. Orvalesque orange peel and dry yeast character, although subdued. Zero alcohol presence in the palate. Fairly mild for its strength, but not in a bad way. I did not find this to be ’weird’ at all, which probably says a lot about what this site has done to my conception of beer.

Murky orange color with spearmint and oak in the nose. Lots of foamy sizzling head that forma a cloud on top of the brew. Cooling mint, oak, anise and a little cinnimon wraped in a tart blanket. Not for the faint at heart.

Hazy, light golden with huge, dense and rocky head. Mouthwatering aroma of juicy lemons, slight acidity, barnyard, pale malts, iron, corriander and others. Medium bodied, nice pilsner malt backbone with orange and lemon peels, slight juciness and sourness, fantastic yeast character that you can feel within the beer, almost bone dry finish with hint of iron acidity. I think the dryness really cuts into the juciness I would have liked to of seen in this. Alcohol is not noticed at all. Definitley not for novices. Not the best fantome brew but havent been disappointed yet, absolutley worth a shot.

UPDATED: NOV 9, 2005 In the shadow world of Fantômes, trees are made of dry yeast and bitter orange rinds, and every season (and every year, every season is different) their spicy leaves change colours...This autumn, some leaves are the off-white of onion salt, others the green of tarragon, and yet others the virginal white of chalk...Amidst this outrageous foliage, huge juicy lemons thrive shoulder to shoulder with young grapefruit...And all around the trunk, a thick clinging foam lingers all season long...A moment in the transmundane...

Some bottles of this though are darker malted, with an overload of spices (mint, rosemary) dancing off conifer trees...At once dry, sour, and yeasty, all leading to an earthy finish with a weak mouthfeel...Every season is indeed different for Fantôme...

The first thing you notice is more than average carbonation. The second thing is the sourness. Both COULD be signs of a bad beer. But user duff said his was ’slightly sour’ so I believe Automne is supposed to taste like this. My bottle was more than slightly sour, but not in a spoiled way, and there was suitable complexity to it. There were spice notes, to be sure, but I didn’t detect any cinammon at all. If you’re looking for a cross between a lambic and a saison, this is your beer. Interestingly, the label seems to say they change the recipe ’each year’, but the cork doesn’t say what vintage mine was!!!

i’m giving this beer points for being completely wierd. This was a very unique beer, huge cinamon flavour, which sucked me in coz i love the stuff. It had a murky brown colour. As i said a hugely cinamony flavour, nice malt flavour aswell, with a nice bitter/acid/slightly sour finish, i kind of liked it, but i really don’t know why. Very ’farmyardy’ in taste.