Fantôme Printemps

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

After another June day in Charleston without AC this is certainly the beer equivilant of morphine. Beneath the satiny foam cape tiny beads of CO2 can be seen gliding to the top. Fresh, ripe, bartlett pear on the nose with a grassy hop spice and crisp minerality. Champagne-like? This gives underripe pinot noir a run for it’s money. Soft malt roundness, almost a super Kolsch like fruitiness gives way to a dry white-wine finish leaving a touch of pinot blanc fruit. Critisism is two fold: Not enough made, and too damn drinkable for 8%! The fact that the recipe changes and the brewery has consistency issues drives up the points on this beer for me. I like suprises. 95

Pours a hazy golden orange with a thin crackly white head. Very nice with some sunlight hitting it. The nose shows some orange peel, nice yeasty character, earthy, nice barnyard funk, some spice coming through, mild sweetness, cardammom/coriander? The flavor is very nice, especially with this weather. Nice and crisp, light, easy to drink. Lots of character, orange rind, spice, yeasty funk, estery, some sweetness. Nice spicy palate with a nice carbonation.

Bottle. Somewhat hazy amber beer with an off-white head. Light hay, honey, and malt aroma. Tart, light sour, lemon, and green apple flavor with hay and light malt. Medium bodied. Sourness lingers with a light acetic note, lemon, and hay. Great balance. Very refreshing.

Bottle. Cork marked 086/47704. Pours with a very pale yellow body with a fluffy white head. Aroma has light skunk and grass followed by lemon, flowers, vanilla, green pepper kernels, wormwood, anise and orange peel. Taste is lemon, citrus tartness, hay and a lightly spicy-herbal finish. Citrus soda like. Tingly bubbles and dry mouthfeel.

Hazy yellow/orange pour, white head. Nice saison, and fairly sour. Yeast, barnyard funk, grain, grass, tart apples, flowers, lemon peel. and some dusty earth. It’s really ligth actually, and covers the alcohol % well. Excellent!

In short: A very wild and rather tart blonde Saison. Complex and mega-refreshing
How: Bottle 750ml. Age unknown (but tasted fresh and lively). Sent to me by ygtbsm94, thanks a lot Brad
The look: Cloudy yellow body topped by a medium white head
In long: The nose is barnyard, flower petals and cheese. Oh man I’m in for a treat!!! Taste of bubbles gum, green apples, white cheese, apricots, mangos, flower petals juice, super nice tartness. Very wild. Full body. Chewy doughy mouthfeel. This bottle really tasted like a cross between a good batch of Fantôme Saison and a good batch of Fantôme Pissenlit. The type of quality batches Fantôme were putting out 3-4 years ago. Either this bottle was old or Fantôme Printemps is the new Fantôme Pissenlit. Given Fantôme less-than-inconsistent releases I’m not sure that my next Printemps bottle will be half as good as this one. One thing for it wont’t be twice as good, because if it is I’ll have to hack the site to enter my rating.

750 ml bottle given to me by alagnak, enjoyed with csbosox. Corked and capped. Pour is hazed golden, yellow with visible floaties. Nice one inch white head that falls quickly. Small amount of lacing. Aroma of grainy wheat, cloves, white pepper and the house Fantome yeastiness. There is also an element of citrus, fresh cut straw and a strange chemical element that I can’t quite place. Taste is clove, white pepper, earthy yeastiness, wheaty graininess. Citric lemon peel, really floral. As with the nose, this beer has an extremely unique taste that I really can’t pin down. Palate is medium, mouth coating. Tasty beer, as always with Fantome interesting. Really a challenge to describe this one. Thanks for giving me this one, Chris!

750ml bottle shared with BeerGestapo. Pours hazy gold with a large but quickly diminishing head. Smells of oranges, floral, hay, and a slight amount of skunkiness. The flavor was bread, lemon, and orange with a slight sour edge to it. Has a bit of sweetness to the finish with some lingering orange tones. Very nice and super refreshing despite the 8% abv.