Fantôme Chocolat

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

750 ml bottle, big thanks to xnoxhatex for this sample. We tried this after the chocolate indulgence and it took a minute or two for my tongue to recover but when it did the subtleties of this beer came forward. Hazy orange pineapple (as someone said) color with a white head that fades quickly. That funk comes out right away in the nose. Pepper, sour, hay, yeast, and barnyard are rounded and balanced with a touch of sweetness. Sour/funky flavors. Barnyard, citrus, orchard apples, pears, with a drying finish that leaves that touch of chile spice and chocolate on the tongue. Well done. I really enjoyed this beer.

750 ml bottle from West Lakeview, Chicago. Hazy grapefruit juice color with white head. Aroma is mostly sweet funk and peppery. Flavor is also funk but chile spice and the very last finish is chocolate. Medium body and hotly carbonated. Like usual a very amazing fantome beer but not a very strong chocolate presence.

750ml bottle. Hazy amber/orange color with a medium head. Aroma is pepper and pear (saisonish) with a chocolaty sweetness. The chocolate was not nearly as strong as you might expect. Not bad, but not knock-me-down good, either.

Re-rating after sharing a second 75cL bottle recently. Hazy to thickly cloudy amber-brown with some off-white, medium-lasting head. Yeasty, grainy aroma overwhelmed by something you could call barnyard, but I think dehydrated piss is more accurate. Yech. Not appealing. Beer is somewhat tart, caramel-malty, spicy. The cocoa is incredibly subdued... We tried it with a piece of chocolate, and that helped us identify the note. But the urine aroma was too much for me this time.

750 from my Secret Santa - thanks!!! Decided to crack this after reading the recent thread with its wildly varied impressions of this beer. I was expecting something much more dry, with some dark cocoa in there. Instead, this is a mostly tart brew with only the faintest hints of the promised cocoa and chilis. Shame, as I was hoping for something demonstrative, for better or for worse. What’s left is an enjoyable saison leaning to the sour side, with occasional flashes of spice, but nothing really resembling the advertised flavors.

Bottle shared... No one in my group is a big fan of saison, however, we couldn’t pass on trying this one. Let me preface this by saying, I didn’t like this one either. For the particulars; pours a coppery golden in color with a big white head that fades into a sticky lace. The aroma is crisp and tart. Flavor is a standard light saison with a bit of pepper. Where is the cocoa? I thought there was supposed to be cocoa... Nope, not there. Oh well, moving on...

750ml bottle; Nose of tart apples, yeast, light spices; hazy copper with a big, lomg-lasting, glass-lacing, beige head; flavor not funky hardly at all, with only a note of chocolate and chili to combine with light fruitiness and spices. Finish is a faint tartness. I expected a much more funky saison! I expected something potent and this proved to be impotent as shown by my rating score!

Bottle. Dark hazy amber colour with a small off-white head. Aroma and flavour of apples, malt, yeast and small hints of chocolate. High carbonation - reminds me of white wine.