Fantôme Hiver (Winter)

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

Ehhh...I can’t say I was digging this. Nice pour and aroma of mild funk. This thing had a really strong herbal spice flavor that really, really tasted like strong oregano. The beer reminded me of a tomato pie...and that wasn’t a great thing. Some fruitiness and mild funk underneath that seemed like it would have been good if someone didn’t come along while I wasn’t looking and put all this oregano in my beer.

Bottle. Pours hazy amber color with a frothy white head. Aroma is citrus, yeast, caramel, pineapple. Flavor is citrus, candi sugar, pineapple, floral. Palate is light to medium bodied, medium carbonation, finished on the acidic. Very nice. Not what I was expecting from a "winter" brew.

2006 bottle (I think) - Golden pour with a medium head. Aroma is thick, sour, sweet, and barnyardey - really intriguing. Flavor has some really nice fruit taste blending with a bretty sour/funkiness that really got me good. Yeast and malt flavors match up well here and finish nicely. The best Fantome I’ve had and a really nice surprise. I Need more of this fantastic brew!

780ml bottle. 2007 version. This was the bitterest saison I’ve had — which tasted odd for the style. That aside, it was an interesting beer, but not one I’d try again until next year. Appealing appearance, cloudy yellow body with large, frothy white head. Excellent aroma of caramel, cotton candy, hay, straw, flowers and pineapple. The aroma promised a sweet-flavored saison. Instead, it was only light to moderately sweet, moderately acidic and moderately to heavily bitter, especially through the finish. Average carbonation. Medium body.

Bach Home Again Tasting - 750ml bottle - 2007 version: Shimmering gold pour with a thin white head. Big nose of caramel, honey, toffee malt, buttery notes abound. The body is a different story though. Starts with the same sweetness in the nose, but a wall of bitterness hits quickly. The bitter turns almost moldy towards the finish. Strange way to end something that starts so sweet.

Finally, my first Fantome. The bottle was well pressurized. After going into a tulip, the beer appears to be a clouded auburn color, with a half inch of foam that isn’t going anywhere. The final pour is a muddy brown. The smell is funkier than I was led to believe by the salesman, which is a good thing. The spiced malt refuses to be outdone, though, and reminds me of a christmas ale. This is an excellent saison. It has the soft malts of a brown ale, with holiday spices and farmhouse funk. The flavors are well balanced, with no one flavor standing above the others. This one is just slightly sweet. The mouthfeel is softly carbonated, and medium bodied. The drinkability could cause me to cause a scene this coming holiday. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 09-29-2005 01:18:05

750 mL bottle - 2007/2008 release. Brown-orange pour with lots of head. Interesting aroma. Very fruity - lots of lemon and citrus. Some sweetness too it as well. Intense spiciness on top of it - black pepper. Bitter lemonade flavor with black pepper and other spices. Malty aftertaste. Very dry, but refreshing. A little thin, but a overall a very good, complex beer. I would actually think of it more of a summer beer though.

Murky brown with a massive rocky brown-white head. Haeavy carbonation. Fruity aroma, faintly of bananas. Heavy malt body with sweet candy sugar flavors and a yeast bite on the finish. More like a belgian strong than a saison, but good nonetheless. 1 year old bottle at least.