Fantôme Chocolat

I still don’t get the chocolate in this one, but a funky barnyard odor may have overwhelmed it. Not much head, but it is very lively on the tongue. Spicy with a bit of tartness, it is funky in the way that Fantome seems to always nail. Not my favorite of the style, but good anyway.

Generous samples on consecutive nights at the Falling Rock during GABF, one from Dr. Bill and one from a complete stranger. Orange-straw body with minimal sparse bubbles. Aroma is of menthol cigarettes, goats, and horseblanket. No noticeable chocolate. Flavor is strongly phenolic with spicy and plastic characters, light honey, some pineyness, and fairly strong bitterness. Mouthfeel is thinned out. Decent, but certainly not one of my favorites from Dany Prignon’s saison factory.

(750ml bottle, best by end 2007) Cloudy amber body topped by big off-white head. Aroma is moderately sweet, honey, orange, some herbal, light cocoa. Taste is moderately sweet, honey, orange, floral, some herbal, faint cocoa in the finish. Light-medium body conceals the alcohol very well. Nice saison (if a mite sweet), so long as you are not expecting a rush of chocolate.

explosive corked bottle that gushed a bit when i pulled out the cork. spicy-sweet aroma, easier to detect the dry chili (or black pepper?) than the dark cocoa powder. hazy and balanced flavor, with the exotic spice and sugar flavors surprisingly subdued. not sure if it’s worth the expense of the whole 750 mL bottle but it was worth trying just to know that i probably won’t buy it again....

quite strange. this was a bit challenging to drink. rich chocolate taste is definately present, but not overwhelming and nicely integrated, however was sort of harder to drink after a while with all the strong flavors going around.

Pours a deep, dark caramel brown with a frothy, puffy, white, and well-lacing head. Aroma is dry, grassy, and funky with some barnyard and earthy chocolate. Body starts semi-sweet, turning more dry, earthy and funky toward the lightly bitter and tart, dry finish. A nicely balanced beer that has some light, pleasant complexity.

Hazy maple gold color with thick white head. Aromas of spice, with faint pepper aromatics in the background as the beer warms up (this beer shows better as it warms). Very creamy mouthfeel, intially sweet but a powdery dryness appears at mid- palate. Long dry finish.

Pours a hazy orange-amber color when held up to the light, otherwise it is a dull amber color. The head is a frothy tan colored and is kept aloft by an ample, though not overwhelming, carbonation. The aroma is soft and fruity, not quite what I was expecting, and there are notes of yeastiness to it. There is notes of tart pear, plum, apple, a bit of grassiness, and a astringent type note that I can’t quite put my finger on. The beer is spritzy as it dances across my tongue. It is initially softly sweet, but then finishes with an astringent sharp note that lingers for quite a while after the beer has gone down my throat. With the sweetness, the beer has quite a bit of fruitiness to it; definitely notes of plums, a bit of raisins and a light acidity that picks up and accentuates the fruitiness as well.

This beer is quite interesting; on the one hand the fruitiness is quite nice, but on the other there really does not seem to be much in the way of chocolate and the finish is a tad hard (though it does not overwhelm the beer). I definitely like this beer, but not as a show case for chocolate. The beer has a malty bready quality to it, with a bit of caramel to it as well. As the beer warms up and loses some carbonation it begins to pick up a soft, quite subtle note of dusty cocoa powder. It is just barely there and may be my imagination, but it is definitely something. I almost think that it would be better if Dany released this as the Automne, lets say for example, and, as usual, did not tell anyone what the extra ingredients were.

<font size=-4>Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp?PlaceID=420>Stuffed Sandwich, San Gabriel, CA<font size=-1>