Fantôme de Noël

750->tulip: Pours a huge, lasting, fizzy light brown head with excellent lacing on a muddy, heavily particulate black body. The aroma is toasted and chocolate with some citrus and perhaps a barnyard note. The flavor is average in duration, moderately sweet, lightly acidic and a tad of sour milk aftertaste. The body is lightly sticky, softly carbonated, and ends astringently. This beer has a great bit of depth that reveals itself by changing its characteristics as you drink it--for instance, I tasted some spices and peppers about 1/2 way through my glass. There’s a lot of sediment in the bottle and I’m unsure if it would be beneficial to gently tip the bottle to re-suspend the particles or not. In the end, a decent beer that I could only enjoy on a cool night.

amber of color with a off white head. An aroma of sour notes, spice, dry notes and hops. A flavor of sweets, spice and sour notes.

Bottle consumed on ukranian christmas (I think) big shout out for all my ukranian friends out there... Appearance- deep stout like appearance with a huge offwhite head. Great lacing. Nose- licorce, some chocolate and twinge of funkiness. Taste- big licorce, dusty and dry as a popcorn fart. Lots of other spices I can’t pick out. Sourness is there, but more so just a dusty, dark fruit weird ass beer, but I’m not complaining. Some powdered chocolate taste as well. Mouthfeel- thing bodied for such an otherwise rich beer. Very drying in the mouth. Drinkability is medium. A bottle best shared, but I took this beast on by myself.

75 cl bottle bought at Delerium, Brussels: Vintage. Pours unclear orange/amber with a little stable white head. Aroma is very spicy & yeasty - typical fantome. Taste is peppery, roasted malts, dusty/earthy, sour, perfume. Very dry. Body is a bit thin. This one we had a hard time figuring out whether we liked or not! (BB) A little over the top I think!

Dark brown with red hues, tan colored head with very good retention and lacing. In the aroma I got old grass clippings, green beans, some slight spice, and maybe a little fruitiness as it warmed. Same characteristics in the taste, except there was none of the fruitiness. Just wasn’t good, would not seek this out.

Bottle shared by theisti at his Holiday Tasting on 12/28/07. Pours a deep, murky brown with a thin, frothy, beige head. On the nose are spice (coriander?), pepper, cane sugar and light wheat. Medium-bodied and quite slick with a dry and spicy finish. The flavor is woody and peppery, yet tart and lightly sour, with a mild vegetal note in background. Overall, I found this one a bit too peppery for my tastes, but I was glad to get the opportunity to try it. Thanks for sharing this one with us, Tim.

750 ml bottle courtesy of mj, enjoyed at my Holiday Mini Tasting. Pour is almost all black, with smallish tan head. Aroma of sweetness, cane sugar that is being cooked, a little bit of alcohol burn to the nose. Taste has quite a lot of citrus sourness (unexpected) which was very sharp and pretty much overwhelming. As the sour relaxes a bit, the candy sugar and holiday spices shine through. Bone dry in the finish. Eventually I warmed to this one..

Tasted at theisti’s Holiday Tasting. Poured a hazy brown almost black with a dark tan head. Plenty of carbonation. Fruity aroma with some burnt sugar maltiness. Lots of black pepper in the flavor. Dark malt in the finish with a nice bit of sourness. A little spicy for my taste, a very interesting beer, but I don’t think I could drink much.