Fantôme Black Ghost

Brewed by Brasserie Fantôme
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Soy-Erezée, Belgium

(bottle) Pours muddy brown with an off-white head that lasts. Smell is quite odd, with a mixture of funk, lightly roasted malt, spices, and some light smoke. The taste is mostly sour, with tart apple, but there’s also some lightly roasted malt as well. The finish is pretty awful with a strong taste of cooked onion and some teriyaki sauce that doesn’t leave soon enough.

Poured from a 750 ml bottle. Dirty medium brown hue. Outhouse aroma. Funky and pungent and moldy. Peppery, with caramel and balsamic seared onion hints. Way out there. Sour dark malt flavor, lightly lactic but with a lovely, sappy, fragrant wood quality about it. Some honey; tartness tends to smear an acidic sharpness throughout that seems soapy given the pairing with black malts. Crisp vegetable skin and pine wood bittersweetness, showing a vague, moisture-wicking spicing in the finish. Interesting, and not the most successful of strange endeavors.

In short: A flat boring citrus juice something…
How: Bottle 750ml, 6+ months old
The look: Very cloudy orange with no head within seconds
In long: This beer is neither black, nor does it have the wild Fantôme character. This is boring citrus juice on a basic bready backbone. Some ground cherries and a light sour touch. A totally lifeless carbonation really kills the few (very few) qualities of this bottle. One of the most disappointing Fantôme I’ve had, if not the most disappointing. Whatever I’ll buy it again cause when a Fantôme is good it is excellent. But for the past few years buying Fantôme beers have become just as risky as boarding an American plane with a 4oz bottle of shampoo.

Bottle. Opaque, light brown pour with a medium sized head. Aroma somewhat sour with hints of dark fruit. Similar flavor along with hint of lemon. Tart and acidic. Slightly watery texture. Very interesting.

Bottle from South Bay Drugs. Pours as a gloomy and opaque tint of dark brown and somewhat glows as light hits the transparent parts of the liquid. The head is a small layer of foam and has a short life span. The nose is a decent aroma of yeast but my first impression was ocean water which was strange. The flavor is tart and sour with only a light touch of sugar but overall the Belgian yeast and spice it has seems a little flat. Definitely packed a high profile alcohol content that at least made up for its lack in flavor.

bottle. pours a brownish, reddish amber, with a sizable head that is almost gone by the time i’ve finished pouring. initial smells invoke a caramel apple infused with who knows what kinds of spices. solid caramel malt notes, with lots of spices (but not of the phenolic variety), on top of a lemony-appley-orangey fantome ester fruit basket. the malts and spices are what stands out though. the taste is similar, with a weird caramel malt dominating. i say weird because when something smells and tastes like that, it’s usually in a barleywine or a scotch ale, and there’s plenty of sweetness accompanying. not so, here. the fruity flavors stand out over the spices a bit more, with more notes of apple but among a variety of other fruits. moderately tart, very dry finish, with a light astringent touch that seems to come from the spiciness. very little carbonation, for a sort of watery mouthfeel. thicker, though. i think i should probably have let this one sit for a while. still, pretty solid stuff. a bit like the saison, but with a caramel malt flavor that dominates an interesting array of spices.

Dark brown with a small white head. Aroma has leather, pepper and chocolate in a nice mix, with a little vineous alcohol note. Dry and roast flavour with a touch of wood and a tart finish. Weird in a good way and I loved it.

Another interesting one. Cloudy copper color, tall beige head. Lots of spices to it, peppers in the finish, not black pepper, and very hot, but good pepper flavor. Soft chocolate up front, but never too sweet due to the carbonation. Finish is slightly tart and a bit fruity, lots of yeast in the flavor. I don’t get a whole lot from this one, not bad, but might need some more time to develop.