Fantôme La Dalmatienne

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

Candy, spicy, slightly minty aroma. Pours cloudy amber with a huge head, lots of carbonation. Its missing that classic fantome flavor! This is the 1st beer i’ve had from them that doesn’t have that great funkiness. Very malty, spicy, slightly fruity with white grapes. Good beer but probably my least favorite from Fantome.

Bottle. Body-murky orange/red/brown with a one inch foamy head. Nose-big Fantome yeasty bready esters, light banana, light lotion and chamomile, light bubblegum, light plywood. Taste-black pepper, light earth, light berry, medium sweet, grains of paradise, light coriander, flower petals. Sweetness sis perfect, light caramel, candy corn, brown sugar, light apple, some metal. Good mixture of sweet, Belgian yeast, unsweet honey, and spices. An excellent example of a Saison form Fantome. Light salt/sea water on the back end.

750mL bottle. Murky brown orange with a small off white head. Cinnamon, clove dominate the aroma, some perfumey and floral tinges. Ubblegum, clove, earthy spice flavors. Cinnamon and appleskin. Ruddy astringency in the finish, with heavy residual spice. Mouthfeel is a light medium, somewhat dry.

750 from Sam’s, Durham. Man, I continue to be surprised by the creativity of M. Pignon. A nice copper pour with a moderate head and bright, lasting carbonation (minimal lacing). The nose promises one of Fantome’s sour apple brews, with dark autumnal flavors dominating. But there’s much more going on. Somehow, I got the distinct flavor of a frisee salad, with some bitter greens blending nicely with tart fruits and a strong peppercorn finish. Some floral overtones in there too, and it’s another wonderfully complex but immediately enjoyable brew from Fantome.

Bottle from Paul. Pours dark copper with a disappointingly small head. Normally Fantome head is totally overbearing. Lots of sediment. Aroma has a lot of cinnamon, cloves, toast. Tons of malt in the flavor, chewy spices, lots of florals. Lacks complexity. Body is nice but not superb, and is a bit hard to drink. Isn’t very refreshing, which many Fantomes are. Quite tasty, but doesn’t live up to many other saisons.

Pours very dark for a saison, dark coppery orange with a moderate lively white head. Aroma of lavender, yeast and some interesting fruits, namely acidic citrus fruits. Taste is complex, lavender and some other interesting floral notes, yeast, light citric orange flavor, slight hops and some pepper on the finish. Extremely interesting Fantome once again doesn’t disappoint.

750 ml bottle. An unclear orange beer with a medium sized and persistent white head. The aroma is very nice, yeasty and hoppy with notes of herbs, flowers, lemon and other citric fruits. The flavour is maltier and sweeter than expected, but with a good amount of hops in the finish. Notes of lemon, herbs, mandarine A medium refreshing acidity is present. Almost full body, lively carbonation, dry long finish with medium bitterness. Another interesting beer from Fantome.

Bottle. Not wHat I expected. First, it pours with a draker color than a regular saison, almost orange. Also, there is a finish thta is not saison like. It is bitter, spicy almost like cough syrup, not bad but very unexpected. I got more into it as I finsihed the bottle, but unlike most saisons that go well with spicy foods this one clashed. So it is an interesting beer with hard to decribe flavor notes that overpower the funkiness that is also there.