Fantôme Printemps

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

Serve in Tulip

750ml, acts like champagne, lemony, very lightly tart, buttery, spicey, grassy, herbally. So unique I’m throughly impressed. Amazing saison.

Pour is a very hazy straw color with a smallish white head. Looks like infected peritoneal fluid. Aroma is funky lemon, faint rock candy sweetness, a touch of hay, distant berry, and a touch of lime. Flavor is extremely subtle with light hints of lemon, very lightly funky, a touch of hay, and some light floral notes at the end. Really drinkable, but not very impressive. Not that I did not like it, but just not what I’m expecting at this price and from this brewery. If it were mass produced by a Macro, It be a solid session choice. Very much like Tecate with a healthy squeeze of lime.

Bottle: Small white head on top of a hazy yellow orange colored beer. Smell white wine and light (orange) fruit, like cantillon with peach, also reminds me of a clean dixie toilet. Taste is very well balanced: sweet, peach, lemon, light sour, light sweet, hint of yeast, light soap. Nicely balanced and easy drinkable, no trace of alcohol. Yeasty fruity light sour ish aftertaste. Low carbo, soft like juice mouthfeel, medium to a lightly fuller body and a light creamy texture. This is good.

This must have been an old or just bad bottle. Pours a murky orange color with a small off-white head. Really just off. Plastic, rubber, booze, and maybe some bleach. A decent lemon flavor and some floral and yeasty notes.

Interessant cervesa de la factoria Fantome. De les que he provat d’ells és la que té més alcohol, segons l’etiqueta, en boca no es nota, està molt ben integrat. Per repetir.

Tasted on 8/31/11 from a capped and corked 750mL bottle purchased at West Lakeview Liquors. Pours a cloudy light orange showing some sediment, along with a very thick white head that slowly recedes to rocky lace. The nose is very interesting and complex with straw, a cardamom-like herbal aroma, nectarine and grape fruitiness, along with a bit of funky spicy yeast. The flavor features the lightly sweet nectarine and grape up front, moving to the straw and herbal notes, and finishing with the herbal and spicy yeast. The body is medium with lively carbonation and a long herbal, lightly spicy, and bitter finish.

Sampled at an East Side Bottle Liberation Society tasting. A gushing monster of a white head. Very small bubbles. This is a hazy lemonade color. It smells like lemon marangue pie and tastes a bit like it. The lemon is definitely on the funky side. Throw in some more subtle fruit and caramel. This was interesting. I liked it.

My favorite Fantome thus far with the possible exception of the regular saison. These notes are from August 2009, 2009 vintage. Pours yellow, hazy, good sized white head, some lacing, not much retention. Aroma is lemon, grass, mint, maybe basil. Flavor is pretty much like the nose, all over the place but quite nice.