Fantôme de Noël

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

Serve in Tulip

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750-ml bottle Marcello’s, Lafayette, LA - Aroma: tart, caramel; Appearance: hazy, brown color, light tan head, laces; Flavor: citrus, sour; Mouthfeel: medium bodied, thick texture, average to lively carbonation, dry finish; Overall: a tart sour belgian beer with the sourness overwhelms any other characteristics (fruity, spicy) that has a dry finish. However, I would drink it again.

Hazy brown in color. Dank(as in basement),dusty, spicy and cured meat nose. Rich, sweet and spicy on the palate. Medium body, good but not great.

from winter 2003. removed the cap and the cork started pushing out. poured with all head. foam kept creaping up the bottle neck. I had to pour two glasses to keep it from overflowing the bottle. light floral hop aroma. bready yeast, herbs. the color is copper amber color. hops, nuts herbs, a light caromel, sweet berrys (blueberry?). a slight alcohol pepperyness. chocolate in the finish. cherrys too. A very flavorful beer. I tasted this at fanome during january. Dany said that he had to make a dark winter beer for the US and Canada, cause thats what people expected. I still have the belgian version that I will try on a later date.

Good color for this beer. It was too rich tasting for me. Nice color and head.

Poured a thick, murky, cloudy brown tobacco color with lighter tan edges and thick foamy head that did not lace at all. Nose was of barnyard funk, hay, lemon peel and coriander. Taste was a blend of that lemon and coriander to form a nice curacao taste initially. This was followed by more of that coriander/belgian yeasty taste, which ended with a boozy finish and a bit of soy sauce. Mouthfeel is very light, which isn’t say the body is thin (it isn’t - it’s quite creamy at times), but it definitely doesn’t linger for too long. Finishes funky, dry and clean. Drinkability is decent, but the 10% abv and soy sauce/booze finish might be too much after a couple glasses.

Drank this on Christmas Eve while making cookies and listening to Holiday music with my girlfriend. This without a doubt is one of my favorite Christmas beers. Perfectly balanced in most aspects. Wonderful sour aroma without being too strong. Pours a terrific red/brown. As for taste, like I said the balance is great, awesome sourness, nice weird yeasty-ness, slight spice and a good mix of a roasty malt top this amazing beer off. All this while being slightly dry and refreshing enough to make me wish I had bought 2 of them. Merry Christmas!

750 ml into tulip. Back-label promises an experience by saying "Brewer Dany Prignon is known for his....creative and adventurous brews." Pours spuming, deep amber hazy body topped by instantly dissipating ivory head. A saison should pour long lasting, dense head but obviously not this one. Fruity esters lacking aroma is completely overwhelmed by dominant sourness with spiciness I couldn’t tell whether derived from hops, yeast phenolics or actual spices used. Light malt and evident spicy alcohol. The flavor is supposed to be citrusy fruity esters and spiciness wrapped in soft malt with additional sourness and alcohol. Instead, the sourness is overpowering, followed by somewhat peppery and nutmeg-like spiciness. Well attenuated malt and high carbonation lend dry finish with spicy aftertaste. Fruity esters and hoppy bitterness I was expecting are largely ignored here. Although spiciness and sourness commonly increase with alcohol strength they are overdone, regardless of the 10% ABV. Fantome Noel is a proof that adventurousness and creativity are not necessarily a good thing. In short: a one-dimensional saison whose sourness and spiciness dominate in the balance.

fruity and spicey on the nose. Initial taste has some woodiness and some tangy sourness and a lot of spice. A nice addition to the fantome range but I prefer the Hiver as a winter warmer.

750 bottle - pours a very dark, murky brown, almost like prune juice, with a huge frothy, creamy head that hangs in all the way down the glass. Aroma is very complex, with lots of dark sweet fruit, caramel, coffee and tobacco. Flavor is also very complex, with strong hints of cocoa, figs, spices and lots of sour apple. Every now and then a mixture of yeast and alcohol come to the front, very interesting. Mouthfeel is heavy, rich and spicy. Aftertaste is long, with strong sour notes. This is a delightful beer, truly a masterpiece!

From a 750 into a chalice. Man it is beers like this that make me wish Xmas would never end. Didnt get any of the famous funk in this that some have described but an amazing chocolately-grape juice thing going on that warmed the hell out of me on a cold winter night.