Fantôme de Noël

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

Serve in Tulip

UPDATED: DEC 5, 2004 12/5/04: 1998 Bottle: This brew pours with a deep red body topped by a thick head with a good amount of lacing. The aroma is sweet and flowery with great fruit notes and a little sourness. The flavor is slightly sour and vinious with some fruity notes. Great beer. Smooth and medium bodied with a touch of dryness. Wow, how my tastes have changed. I leave my original rating here just to show that. 1/18/03: Aroma:7 Appearance:3 Flavor:1 Palate:2 Overall Impression:8 Rating:2.1 Opaque dark brown body topped by a tan thick soda like foamy head that disappears rather quickly leaving a decent amount of lace. sour citrusy aroma with a slightly sweet melon background and a spicy maltiness. Very sour lemony flavor with a slight spiciness and a nutty woody finish. Not to my liking, it is way to sour. Very dry, full bodied and warming.

UPDATED: DEC 18, 2004 2004 bottle - wow, this one’s better than the last couple for sure. Thin sour tart fruits, and right in the middle - BAM! - it’s like the flavors just explode and fill your mouth with a complex melange of fruits, malts, spices and wild things. Palate is a little acidic, but that’s allright. More crazy goodness from Fantome

2002 bottle - O.K. we let this one warm up a bit more - palate thickened and it took on more qualities of a port wine. Still found this to be over the limit as far as acidity goes.
2001 bottle - So sour, tart and carbonated that I can’t finish it. It almost seems like it’s gone bad, but from reading some of the other ratings, it looks like it’s supposed to taste this way. (Will re-rate after trying the 2002 bottle.)

Bottled 75cl. Courtesy of bierkoning. Appearance: It pours a beautiful murky deep nut brown beer with ruby reflects and a fair tanned head. Some lacework. A lot of sediment. Aroma: Very complex. Hints of sherry, mince pies, cork, honey, cherry, plum, vinegar, cranberry, pepper, brown sugar, apricot and spices (which include ginger?), caramel and some grassy components (maybe even dandelion?!). Nicely sour. Flavor and palate: Very pleasant. Low carbonation. The alcohol is nicely hidden. Smooth. Good balance and complexity. Woody. Moderate sourness. Cherry, wood, plum, Christmas cake, cherry, ginger, apricot, vinegar, cranberry, pepper and brown sugar showing up. Some marmite sneaking in. More sourness showing up with the swallow. Dry acidic finish which is surprisingly malty and reminiscent of marmite and raisins. Overall impression: The spicing is extremely sophisticated. Complex. Rather pleasant. Good. Thanks a lot bierkoning!

2/11/2009: Fantome de Noel is uh......... It’s good, but I have no idea how to describe what this beer tastes like. Like all Fantome beers, you will just have to try it for yourself to understand what I am talking about. I’ll try to describe it, but I don’t think I have an adequate vocabulary... It pours a deep golden color with lots of sediment suspended in animation with a creamy ivory head. The aroma is earthy? (not quite but I really have no idea how to describe it), herbal (maybe, but not in the usual sense), and B.O./sweat? I really have no idea. The flavor is just as intriguing. It is soft and smooth like a lager/Pils (some sort of European-style lager mixed with a skunky Mexican lager) in the front and then becomes more herbal and impossible to describe. Tom thinks it is like Ginseng root, but I have no idea since I haven’t had straight Ginseng before. I’ll take his word on it. Regardless, this is a good, drinkable beer, but doesn’t really seem like a holiday/Christmas beer to me. In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Even though I can’t describe this or any other Fantome in any meaningful way, I still really enjoy drinking them because they are some of the most interesting and different-tasting beers available.

0.75 l capped and corked bottle (alc. 10% vol.) shared by Tmoney99. Thanks! Rating #440 for this beer.

Musty stewed apple nose. Cloudy rust, with a huge peach colored head, good lacing. Musty and lightly tart, apples. Peppery finish.

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..

(Bottle) Pours copper red with a sand colored head. The aroma holds wood, peppery spices, dry caramel malt, honey, sour oranges, other tart citrus fruits, light resin, smokey phenols and light alcohol. The flavour light sweet, light bitter and light to medium acidic. Tones of wood, citrus, mould, phenols and spices. The mouthfeel is round and tart with light carbonation. Citric and dry from the alcohol. Medium bodied.

25.4 oz bottle. Foggy brown with some forced bubbles. Nose is cheesy, funky, yeasty, moldy fruit and allspice. Been a while since i’ve had a Fantôme but one sniff and it’s immediately recognizable. Creamy, but not thick, with soft buzzy carb. Taste is gingerbread, apricot and woody orange peel. Dry bready finish with residual spice.