Fantôme Hiver (Winter)

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

Bottle: Bottle courtesy of Styles. Very sweet aroma with some cinnamon and spice. Pours a cloudy reddish-orange with barely any transparency. Small off-white head. Sweet and fruity (cherries and melon) and lightly tart with tons of spice. The funky sour melon and spice finish doesn’t appeal to me all that much.

Poured cloudy light gold, edging on brown. Heaps of yeast. Aroma is yeasty, spicy and sweet. Flavour is a wonderful balance of citrus, vanilla, fresh grains, spices and yeasty bread. Really easy drinking, wonderfully smooth. Great stuff!

This bottle was less carbonated than I thought it would be. Pouring fairly aggressively still yielded little head. The beer itself is an opaque brown color. Wonderful nose with the spiciest scent I’ve had in a beer to date. This quality is carried out througout the entire drinking experience. This is my first Fantome. Can’t wait to try more.

Reddish-brown body with a fading, effervescent grayish head. Wild aroma of vanilla bean, cream soda, orange sherbert, a funky lactic quality, and some oxidative notes. Tart, cherry yogurt flavor with a horsey finish. Creamy texture. This particular beer was much too funky and out-of-control. Fantome should be disqualified from RateBeer for major consistency problems.

bottle-pours a burgandy hue with a big off-white head. big brett in this one with funk, spicy esters, some corriander, vanilla. Flavors are very spicy, with notes of vanilla, orange peal, banyard, and slight sourness. This beer is pretty funky, but i like it! this is definately a spiced saison that is pretty well balanced and has alot of depth/complexity to it. I wish i was better at sampling this style because there is alot going on here.

Opaque, dark amber-red, like a bing cherry. Small head. Aroma is sweet and funky, with floral notes along with hints of cherry, raspberry, and cider and lots of spices. Taste is very full, a little woody and earthy with all-spice, cherries, malt, and a nice amount of funk. The flavors change with the temperature and the acidic dryness takes you through the entire bottle. I simply loved this beer.

Bottle. Pours a light cinnamon cloudy brown with big lasting off-white head. Aroma is both spicy and sweet with apple. Taste is earthy and yeasty with the lingering taste of sour apples. NICE. Fantome knows how to make a beer. (Is this really a saison? It’s very different than something like Dupont, which I also love.)

Bottle at the Montreal tasting, 4/17/05. Lovely, light chestnut brown color with some deep tinges of amber and honey. Large off-white head, lasting, lacing and plenty of clumping. Fantastic appearance as always from Fantome. Aroma of cinnamon, rye, allspice, ginger, cardamon, some light sugar, enjoyable Belgian yeast and some light apples/pears dipped in caramel sauce. Flavor begins moderately malty, with notes of earth, dry wood, tree root, cinnamon sticks, fluffy yeast and lightly bitter, almost nutty hops. Gets more tart the more you drink, drying out the palate nicely with its divine Fantome yeastiness. Controlled acidity, though, with earl gray tea, vanilla cream and spices to linger on forever. No alcohol, soft, but tingly carbonation and a medium-full body.