Fantôme Saison

750 ml bottle corked and capped - Pours amber and cloudy with a short white head that faded quick. Aromas of apple, spice and yeast. Flavor is spice, yeast, some floral notes, a touch of vanilla, and a definite sour quality.. almost lambic like but not quite.. Some lemon, apple, and other fruits seem to add the sourness. Palate is spritzy for a beer that showed very little head and not much pop on the cork. Interesting

bright gold in color with huge head. bubbly & perfumy. not as spicy as other saisons I’ve encountered. Easy drinking. decent

Pours an apple juice color of amber gold. Tons of sparkly carbonation rushing to form an acid-white head of better than two inches. Then poof! The carbonation is gone. Just like that. The bubbles continue to rise, vigorously at first, and then tapering off to almost nothing. Looking at the beer after it is in the glass for a couple minutes, you would think that it was flat. But its not. It is just throwing you the first of several curveballs. Very thin traces of lace hang around for the duration. Smell: Tangy sweet citrus. Then citrus spicy sweet. Then sweet-tart, like the candy of the same name. Then musty vinegary flowery. Every time I smell it, it smells just a little bit different. Now its apple juice and yeast... Now the flavor. More variations. I taste every combination that I mention above in the aroma department, but all with an underlying tartness that I find incredible (a tartness that the wife can’t stand, by the way). I swear I can sense a different flavor on every region of my tongue. And a sweetness on the roof and sides of my mouth where there aren’t even any tastebuds (right?). Now there’s somthing like peach pit, but sweetened. Peach pit? This beer is playing tricks with me. A complex, confusing, competitive, confounding, yet comforting confluence of flavor. A conundrum. Man I love this stuff!

A familiar beer that I’ve neglected to rate so I sat down with a 750 and got ’er done. Lightly hazy fresh straw color with medium visible carbonation and a dense, foamy, white head. Classic Fantome signatures in the nose with soft peppery phenols, citrus rind, light musty grass, and a note of perfume. Aromatic flavor with lightly numbing phenols and modest bitterness. Mouthfilling carbonation and smooth texture. A classic.

Peach and apricot stand out. Is that from hops? Some floral spice. Like a livelier Orval. Slightly dry, but balanced. Nice complexity based on fruit and spice. Very explosive flavors. Reminds me of some Jolly Pumpkin stuff.

Pours a dark, cloudy orange with a white head that dissapates quickly. Smell of spices and wheat, almost like a hefe. Taste is remarkable smooth, but bitter, like sour almost. I taste wheat, spices, maybe corriander. It’s dry like a wine. I really enoy this beer. It would be perfect on a hot summer afternoon, but still nice during the winter, it helps break the routine of stouts and porters during the winter.

Beer World of Largo. <P> The body of this beer is a hazy golden/yellow and holds a bubbly, diminishing white head. The aroma is fruity and lightly funky. The carbonation is intense and tickles the nose. There is a vague suggestion of vanilla and lemongrass as well. <P> Biting carbonation on the first sip is followed by grain/wheat cakes, light fruit notes, muted vanilla, nilla wafer-like flavors, herbal notes and a dry almost dusty finish. Some lemongrass appears in the finish along with some floral (almost rose petal) highlights. It still amazes me that these beers are usually around 8% as they are so soft, light and refreshing.

750 ml. bottle. Large frothy white head floats over a hazy gold pour leaving nice lace as it slowly settles. Spicy citrus nose with some hints of yeast and spruce. Clean mouthfeel with a medium body, smooth yet with lively carbonation. Light honey sweetness fades qucikly replaced by a pungent spicy bitterness and a light sourness combining for a pleasingly dry finish. Wonderful.