Fantôme Hiver (Winter)

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

Bottled. Purchased at Delirium Cafe. Pours a muddy brown with a full speckled tan head. It almost looks like the color of hot chocolate. Nose is sweet and chocolaty with aromas of sugar cookies. Taste is sweet but adds much more spice flavors and some yeast. Kind of like a Christmas time cookie or maybe an oatmeal cookie. Weird but good. Body is well rounded save for some sporadic carbonation sharpness. I poured the "dregs" of the bottle in and it had HUGE clumps of sediment in it. It was a sight to behold and it added some yeastier flavors to it. Finishes nicely with more sweetness and pelasant spiciness along with a light gingery note.

This orange-amber ale pours with a sparse tan head, eliciting a fruity aroma. The flavor is spicy and musty, with an effervescent feel. A fairly good effort from Fantome, but not quite up to their usual (high) standard.

Bottled. Cloudy orange. Light estery fruit aroma with a touch of menthe. Funky and lively, medium dry with light sparkling moutfeel. Lightly resiny finish with some bitterness. Complex.

I think, just to fully experience the wonders of this brewery, I need to buy several cases of it and bathe in it, letting it seep into all my varied passages and cracks. Would it help me appreciate the beer? Probably not, but it’s a nice idea. Clear light mahogany, wispy oily head. Nose very malty, lovely chocolate notes, vaguely musty, some sweetness. Great flavor, rich cocoa chocolate character mixes with spices, good yeasts, and a mix of cherries, plums, and earthiness. Just a hint of barnyard character, enough funk to put junk in your trunk. Good stuff, and Fantome continues to impress.

Label says "Winter", but I can only assume this is the "Hiver", and, while only days ago, I thought it was the beginning of "printemps", well, we got dumped on by 8 inches of snow, here in early March in my little frozen corner of the world, and it’s Hiver all over again, why not enjoy it! Un cap, un cork, POP!!!...ah!...gorgeous, hazy orange color, with a good, buzzing, slight layer of foam above. Aroma is sour and must with a good portion of citrus, fresh and full, but dominated by this musty orange character. Taste: puckering ...biting...totally sour flavor, softly fading, leaving a touch of sweet citric quality behind. Let’s try again...briefly biting hops, then that sourish pucker, ooh!!!, then after a bit, sweet orange and lemon, tasty...not what I expected from a winter brew when the autumnal variety had such a variety of flavors at it’s disposal. A good saison, but surprising as a "winter beer". Terribly interesting, this, with that never-ending tango of sweet, then sour, then back, then forth, a complex brew, invigorating, delicious, spicy, yet sublime ... hurrah for Fantome, I say it loud and proud! (originally written 3-08-04)

Murky orange brown, smallish cream head....smell...orangey-clovey, sweet cream, sugar/honey, acidic too, herbal but I don’t what herbs. Mild meadow farmyard, with some funk mixing with light flowers. Also stinky cheese. Taste: no alcohol, some bitter herbs up front, muddled spices, middle fairly sweet but acidic, end bitter, yeasty, cheesy, coating but also dry. Not refreshing but tasty. Warming. Thanks, wunder!

Rerate from older bottle: mellower, yeast flavors have died down, leaving a soft, subtle sweetness accented by spice. Green apple notes, a warming finish. Old numbers: 8/4/7/3/16

Quite sour aroma. Bitter start and middle. Hoppy palate and finish. I liked this one.

Bottle. Soft and spicey. Citric rindy-lightly acidic. Bready, touches of oak, apples, earthy, very soft and delicate, 8%ABV is masked unbelievably well. Didn’t taste as dark as i expected, but it was still very nice.