Fantôme Chocolat

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

Bistro l’Autre oeil. Hazy amber with a thick long lasting white head. Aroma is spices, chocolate, peppers, malt. Taste is horse blanket, chili, malt, bitterness. Very special beer with a medium body.

Bottle: Poured a dirty beige color ale with a medium foamy head with great retention. Aroma of spicy pepper, funky yeast and floral malt is well balance and typical of Fantome. Taste is quite spicy with a faint funky ending. Chocolate is very hard to distinguish. Body is about average for the style and alcohol is sensible to some degree. Not bad but I guess I am always expecting greatness form this brewer.

This is some crazy shit. The aroma is very salty, MSG and paprika, definitely chili peppers, though not spicy, maybe a touch of bitter chocholate. Alcoholic, grassy, floral, dandelions, Smells a lot like Zatarains jambalaya rice mix ;) The pour starts off an ugly brown, but once you pour the yeast in, it becomes so ugly, soupy thick light brown, that I had to take a picture. I still give it a 4 though, because I love having something so ugly and yet so tasty. It almost adds to its appeal. Taste-wise, it’s a lot more saison-like, more similar to pissenlit than any I’ve had, but has that backstage spiciness from the chilis, and once in a while a touch of chocolate. I’ve had both the chili pepper beer and the chocolate stout from Rogue, and this upstages both of them easily, in that both flavors are integrated, rather than being the only noticable flavors of the beer.

750 ml bottle into an etched Tulip glass. Pours a very murky orange brown with lots of little floaties from mid-glass downward to the bottom. The head is very white and foamy at first, and dies down and sticks around on the edges of the glass. The aroma has a sweet yet farmy Belgian yeasty note mixed with a light cocoa aroma. The flavor is much lighter than I was expecting starting with a sweet Belgian yeast note which moves into a nice and light cocoay flavor that reminds me of a nice hot chocolate. This then slowly progresses into a farmy spiced finish to where after the sip has gone down the throat, you can really taste the chili peppers. No hint of alcohol. Somewhat light bodied for an 8% abv brew. Quite the interesting conception!

A cloudy light brown pour. With an aroma of belgium spicy yeast. A flavor of spicy fruit. A different beer than most I have tried.

Hazy amber hue, with a frothy beige head, yeasty, winey fruity, hints of spiciness, of chocolate beans, nutmeg, fruity side of ripe apples, toasted malt, note of tobacco, in the aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate with a crisp acidic winey fruity character, toasted malt, spicy nutmeg, hint of peaish malt, mild chocolate note, and faint cocoa beans, subtle floral hops, leading towards a fruity acidic and a touch of bitterness in the finish. Not much as chocolate beer.

Pours a dense, cloudy color that resembles apple cider more than anything. Massively yeasty, flavors of mild chocolate and powerfully sharp chili peppers. Like other fantomes, it tastes like nothing else on this planet. Interesting and enjoyable, but not refreshing in any way. This is beer at its most artistic and abstract.

A very interesting brew. Its actually very different than any beer Ive ever had. The spices are what make it unique - the chocolate is mild. Strong alch taste - kind of harsh in some swallows. also very yeasty and mildly hoppy.