Fantôme Printemps

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

Serve in Tulip

Pours a hazy gold color with an inch or more of thick white foam. Very nice spidery lace. I smelled a strong, pungeant, tart cider aroma as I poured the beer into my glass. First sip - sour. I taste some unripe apple and lemon. A little grapefruit too. Beyond the tartness, there is a peppery-clove spiciness. Something suggests to me that the spiciness comes from spices, and the hops, and the yeast strain. Medium bodied, with lots of fizzy carbonation. Lots more of that spice when the yeast from the bottom of the bottle is stirred up. The most sour Fantome I’ve tried yet, but that’s what I’m looking for. Very good beer.

July 2007 - Wonderful fruity and spicey saison. Pale orange color wit good lacing and head. Frutiy, spicey with perfect blend of pepper, spices and fruit with the required barnyard funk. Call me crazy, but something in the spices tasted like Mountain Dew...and it seemed to work well. Really an excellent showing.

Bottle, year unknown. Golden with a slight haze, topped with a nice white head. On the nose: funk, straw, spiciness. The first impressions on my tongue were musty strawberries. Hay, tartness, apricots, slight oxidized sherry notes, nutmeg, followed with a hop bitter dry finish. Drying and slight puckering effect. Well carbonated, slightly spritzy, besides a slight feeling of alcohol in the throat it never felt as big as it was for a saison. They musty fruits and strange tartness were very enjoyable. Great brew!

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.

AROMA: Lemon, anise, traces of skunking (they need to get rid of the green bottles or just store it better), farmyard smells (hay, straw, dirt), wine (white burgundy); APPEARANCE: hazy, light yellow or straw, thin head, virtually no lacing; TASTE: sour, slight bitterness, PALATE: thin, spritzy, lingering finish of a soft nature; OVERALL: exceeds expectations, the skunking was fleeting and more a testimony to the problems of storage than of brewing.

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.

Fruity and somewhat sour aroma. Some hops in the aroma. Mildly cloudy orange color. Fruity flavor with some hay-like character. Fresh and refreshing. Some grapefruit flavors in aftertaste. Nice medium body with a silky texture. This beer has a great refreshing flavor. This beer makes me happy!

750 ml bottle into tulip, no best before date notched. Pours hazy golden straw color with a fairly dense 2 finger white head with good retention that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Some spotty lacing on the glass; plenty of carbonation streaming up. Aromas of big tart apple, grape, pepper, hay, lemon, earthy spiciness, and big funk. Incredible aromas here with good strength and complexity. Taste of lemon, tart apple, pepper, hay, citrus, grass, bread, herbal spice, and some funk. Fairly dry finish; with lingering notes of lemon, apple, pepper, spices, and light tartness on the finish for a bit. Medium bodied with fairly high carbonation; with a fairly prickly, yet smooth mouthfeel that drinks easily for 8%. Alcohol presence is pretty much non existent. Overall this is definitely an excellent saison offering from Fantome. I would not expect anything less.