Fantôme Hiver (Winter)

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

750 ml bottle. Deep dark amber colour. Creamy medium-sized off-white head. Acidic brett aroma. Leather and peach. Citrus. Mouthfeel is flat and all the carbonation seems to be gone. The bottle itself had a lot of carbonation when it was opened. Satsuma and orange flavours. Perhaps a little white pepper. And a lot more which is hard to point out. Malty, but suffers a bit from being dried out.

Medium fine-laced white head. Orange body with slight haze. Very harmonic aroma--hard to analyze. Tropical fruit, tobacco, and subtle, light dusty balanced spices. Orange, wood, and pepper. Taste is milky acidic tobacco with tropical fruit notes and chalk. Bitter dandelion aftertaste. Not bad, but it’s possible the bottle was too old. Should re-rate to be sure. (0.75l bottle.)

Pours dark amber into a tulip. Off-white micro head subsides with slight, slick lacing. Pit fruit aromas. Crisp with sour spice and a lasting funky finish.

Poured a hazy light tan brew with a thing pale head that disappeared quickly. The aroma was fruity and earthy. The taste completely threw me. It was my first saison and I was not expecting it. It was very very earthy, funky, musty. I was not a fan. Maybe it was the fantome or maybe it was just the fact that it was a saison, regardless I was not a fan. The musty/earthy/funky taste was so overwhelming I couldn’t get at anything else.

750 ml bottle: pours a hazy amber color with an off white head. sweet malty, yeast spicy aroma.maybe just a hint of cadny/bubble gum/honey. flavors are quite complex. malt sweetness up front with some spiciness. wheat, caramel, light fruit and grapes, bubble gum, anise. earthy, funky wildness. faint hint of citrus and flowers. very drinkable.

Bottle - big yeasty nose with bunches of spice. Amber, rusty body with a HUGE beige head and floaties galore. Hugely complex flavor ... gonna take a while to describe and I’m not sure I’ll do it justice. Big yeast up front followed by a clove finish. In initial swallows flavors just bounce all over the mouth. Tart and acidic. A nice, fizzy mouthfeel. I’m not a huge Belgian fan, but - wow!

Murky brownish-yellow appearance; fine lacing and a single layer of retained head. Yeasty, reserved, marshmallow-like, honey and pepper; slightly hesitant aroma, overall. Huge, complex mouthfeel: yeasty, spice, pepper, belgian sugars, light citrusy bitterness - everything slightly tart and effervescent (Champagne-like) on the tongue. Yeast and spices (cardamom?) dominate on a lengthy, satisfying finish. Such an excellent beer.

Poured in everything. Looks like dark rust. Nearly opaque. A hardened soft glow seeks the center but doesn’t even come close. A tall, all encompassing, cap of thick, luscious foam sweeps up the side of the goblet growing like the increasing wind of a oncoming storm. The top is tanned light brown in hue with a spot of brown leather in the center from the yeasty drippys. Tends to keep one heck of top sitting there the whole glass through; from pour to pour until the bottle is empty, the top is always sitting with a solid presense. Lacing is slow and low into the glass with patterns of thickly stringed blobby forms. Aroma is soft and tender of a darkened tartness of citrus and smokey malts. Kinda grapey, kinda plummy, a certain funk of leather and wet, old wood simply keeps it interesting to the nose. Flavors are simple in composure but complex in layers and length. Simple ways about it seem forebodingly dark and seeping into a sweet, deep tartness thats amazingly soft and supple. Flavors are a wave of mixtures making the overall current a tasty little display of dark grape and citrusy orange dusted with cocoa and semi tangy molasses. Very moderate really but lasting. Rides out for a tauntifingly, yeastified, sweet, and candied treat. The semi sweetness, sugared cookie doughness, and wood/leather funk hints is the make and mark of a great Belgian beer. And this smacks of that fact. Feel is sublime! So succulant, so soft and tender. It works sublimely with the flavors across the palate. As if to unfold, or create a breeze with verve and steadiness. The body is just over medium and never strays from there. Texturized in fluffy stuff that yeasty things like to create. Perfect. This is one very damn fine brew. That 8% and bigger 750ml bottle can catch ya off guard right quick if your not careful. A sipper, sure. But downable all the same.