Fantôme de Noël

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

Dark hazy brown color with a small head. My first impression upon sipping this is what a thin body it has for a 10% beer. Decent lacing. Saison like aroma with a clove like taste and mouthfeel. Different but not something I will go back to.

Slightly cloudy dark amber beer. Sour, slightly rotten aroma. Sweet, odd spicy taste. Sweet-bitter finish. Re-rated at the Kerstbierfestival 2003. Aroma much better now. I wonder if I got a perfecr bottle last time. The taste was rather spicy and a bit sweet. Light bitter finsih.

Bottle. Dark brown with small head. Ginger, sweet, wine-gum, medium bodied, nicely balanced but a still a little weird imo.

I found a Vintage 2003 bottle for only $9!!! HAhahahahah! And there is a store here in town that is charging $19.99 for the same shit! HAhahahahah

Ahhhhhh!!!!! I thought I had a bad bottle when I poured the beer because there was such a lackadaisical head, nearly nothing… but a small wispy tan froth. The body is a dark murky amber.
The aroma and flavor come across with a great depth of spices and sweet toffee and caramel malt. Tremendous suggestions of apricot, plums, pears, honeydew, raisons, and dried orange peel are most noteworthy. Danny must have emptied the spice rack into this batch! Fantastic notes of coriander up front, a hint of cinnamon, clove and cardamom are mid taste, and then I pull a wild notion of GINGER and Black Pepper Corn. In the center of my tongue I grab the slight warming spiciness of ginger… and I eat a lot of ginger! This is one Awesome combination of Holiday spice and sweet toasty malt, and the 10% abv is hidden like a ghost!!
What continually amazes me about this brewery is how F-ing innovative, yet completely natural Fantome’s beers are. They are extremely complex but always come across as an effortless act. I am always leveled by Fantomes Offerings…. And again, this is no exception!

750 ml bottle shared by Tmoney99. Pours a hazy dark orange amber color with a medium creamy beige head. The aroma is complex and interesting: chocolate and caramel sweetness, spiced sweat, herbal, funk, with an overall earthy quality. The flavor is just as complex: it is at times a farmhouse ale and others more like a lager. Spicy, herbal, caramel, sometimes a little sweet, sometimes a little sour funk, wait is this 10%, there was discussion about ginseng but I’m still not sure. What I do know is that Fantome never makes a boring beer.

Dark amber in colour with medium carbonation. Notes of mint, chocolate, and red wine in the nose. Insane flavors of nutmeg, port, cinnamon, coriander, lemongrass, lemon, wet hay, spruce, and cork. As the beer warmed, the barnyard flavors became far more apparent. A bit too wild for the folks who shared the bottle with me, but I love beers like this. Another fantastic beer from Fantome.

750 ml bottle. Creamy large beige head settles to a smooth thin layer over a deep amber pour, and eaves good lace. Fruity aroma, dosed with caramel and peppery spice. Medium body, light carbonation, rich, warming, slightly syrupy mouthfeel. Sweet caramel with a a distant tartness and a softly bitter finish.

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.