Fantôme Flop!

Formerly brewed at Brasserie Fantôme
Style: Saison
Soy-Erezée, Belgium

Serve in Tulip

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Delirium Cafe Cloudy orange, sedimented ale wearing a large, but quickly fading (for Fantome) off-white head of big bubbles. Herbal, agressively spicy, orangey, juicy almost nose filling the nose with fruity esters aplenty, but in a sea of dust. Highly effervescent in mouth, but rather thin bodied. Important sour bite shows more of the initial herbal characteristic in a woody fashion, but not barrel-like, dirty, earthy branches more so. A rather dirty ale, usually, that would be a quality for a Fantome, but the sourness is a bit too much once intermingled with all those spices.

Muddy, close to vomit color with almost no head. Aroma of cork, yeast and spices. The flavor is mineral with yeast and spices. The body is light to medium with a dusty texture and gentle carbonation. Not one of Fantôme’s greatest for sure.

Bouteille verte de 750 ml, avec bouchon de liège, partagée lors d’une dégustation Ratebeer Montréal chez MartinT. Arôme: Légère odeur d’épices avec une pointe fruitée. Apparence: La couleur est blonde-ambrée voilée avec une faible densité de bulle. Présence d’un mince col mousseux et d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Léger goût d’épices et d’agrumes. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement minérale. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. (Rating #2581)

My Bottom Line:
Rosemary-like herbs, apple cider fruitiness, oxidation and basement-like wet earthiness collide in this perplexing, and rather old, Fantôme concoction.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam sinks into the murky amber.
-The low carbonation was rather soft.
-Tartness was pleasant, but age has already taken its toll on this beer.
-Vinegary connotations can be tasted throughout.
-That is one hilarious label!

Bottle.

A leftover from my visit to the brewery a few years back, the cork was starting to look pretty bad, so expectations were low on this one. Even the label on the bottle was decrepit and worn.
Surprisingly, the cork popped with no problems, and the Beer had a surprising amount of head, although it died off in a minute or so. The looks were pretty bad, as in murky sewage brown, but at least it didn’t have chunks or floaties. The aroma was moldy cork for the most part, with maybe a little cattyness, but not the kind you get from certain types of hops.
It still tasted carbonated, but that may more from the fact that Fantômes are quite mineral by nature so it might just be an illusion on my tongue. Who knows. Anyways, it’s earthy, in a cemetary dirt sort of way, and you could detect some yeast character, but it was obviously dead for a long time. Nothing in the aftertaste but cork and dust.
For an expected trainwreck, I’ve had plenty worse.

Cloudy with sediments. Light amber color. Good foam. Smells like fruits. Fruity with a bitter aftertaste. Apple and peach flavors. The bitter aftertaste is too bitter, rather than a balance for the sweet fruity taste.

UPDATED: AUG 5, 2011 Pours beautiful golden with a one fingers high and white head. Nose of yeast and notes of caramel + oranges and some spicyness too. Medium sweet flavour with yeast, appels and spicy notes. Light to medium bodied. More sour finish. Good and crisp.

Bottle. 75cl. Light unclear medium orange color with a small to average, frothy, fair lacing, fully diminishing, off-white to white head. Aroma is light malty, roasted, light to moderate hoppy, moderate yeasty, pepper and pepper. Flavor is moderate sweet, light to moderate acidic and moderate bitter with a long to average duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. (160208)

Bottle. Hazy yellow colour with an off-white head. Aroma and flavour of fruit, hops and spice.

Bottle. Pours a hazy yellow. Aroma of grape fruit, yeast, spices (mainly clove), citrus and dust. The flavour is sour with grape fruit and citrus, spiced with mainly cloves, yeast, wet hay, bitter hops and a sour spiced bitterish finish. Strange interesting brew.