Fantôme La Gourmande

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

750ml. Pours a bright orange, slightly hazy with no head and minimal carbonation. Aroma is tangy, sour/acidic, with a light fruity sweetness. Balanced and inviting. Taste starts with a nice orange citrus paired with medium acidity. Funkiness protrudes, yielding a yeasty, dry, almost gritty tone. Finish is very dry, just a hint of oak in there as well. I would never have guessed this was a saison, tastes more along the lines of a sour brown to me. This beer has a rich complexity, and is still very balanced. Very good stuff.

Bottle. A golden color with a big foamy light white head. A yeasty, banana, orange, and lightly spiced aroma. A touch of sweetness on the dry velvety smooth palate. Earthy (but still light), pepper, vanilla, and orange in the flavor. Probably the finest of the Fantome beers I have had. It bypasses the barnyard mustiness of many others to deliver a delightfully complex beer.

Thanks sick_boy282 for bringing this tasty treat to my house on X-Mas! Pours a slightly cloudy golden color with a small head and just a little bit of lacing. Aroma is sour and slightly fruity. Flavor is sour, but really, really fruity making for a very odd combination (for some reason it’s odd to me in this beer). I’m just not sure how much i like it but will say that it grows on me with every taste. Very dry on the palate.

Pour is hazy golden amber with a big/big bubbled off white head...smell is yeasty and somewhat lemony with lots of funk...taste is nice and sweetly tart, an great refreshing taste for a saison! Very effervescent with lots of lemony sweetness...dry dry dry...nice...

Rating#1Smelled great, and poured beautifully, but the taste doesn’t quite live up to the aroma. Very, very good, nevertheless, but a little plain for a Fantome. It is, however, a very well rounded and drinkable beer. If other Fantomes are a little over the top for you, this may be your beer.Rating#2 Wow. What a different beer from the last time. This is very different, with sour lambic notes contrasting an almost dubbel-like maltiness. Delicious, but a much more aquired taste. I think Fantomes may blend better with age (this bottle was from a very fresh shipment) but must be stored with alot of care to keep from going bad. I’ll never know, cuz i can’t keep this around without drinking it.

Many thanks to rater FlacoAlto for sending me this bottle well over a year ago! I’ve had this beer on it’s side in my cellar for many a month.

Pours with a gleaming golden body, a small haziness. The head is a white cap of powdered snow, a great cobweby lacing! The aroma is refined, elegant and dream like! Ahhhh… I can already tell that this beer is going to be AMAZING! I’, pulling out some wonderful suggestions of pears, plum, apricot, red apple, with a twist of key lime. The flavor brings many of the same fruity characters that I just mentioned. There is one of the most well rounded musty stable / barnyard notes to this beer! Like nothing I have ever found in any Saison! How can I describe this?
Chewing on dried cut hay, Cornflakes, Wheaties, Shredded Wheat. A mild clean hint of gorgonzola cheese and orange zests, notes of caramel, lemon grass, with a rosemary herbalness in the finish. I adore the doughy, musty, yeasty complexity to this beer. I now understand the meaning of the descriptor “cobweb.”
The palate is outstanding! It hits perfection mid palate and adds a hint of a dry tart finish as a final surprise. I couldn’t ask for more! This beer… WOW… speechless… was it the ageing? This brew personifies my most favorite tastes to be found in beer! Out Freaking Standing!

Bottle. Primarily a musty aroma with fruit tones. Orange yellow with large, quick collapsing head. Light apple juice flavor transitioning to a musty, dry flavor - very much dry wine-like. A nice drier saison.

Bottle at London gathering, November 2005, courtesy Joeh (I think). Some people reckon Fantome beers can be a bit hit or miss but I can’t say I’ve ever really had a dodgy one. This one hits the spot. Hazy orange colour. Distinctly funky, with some cheesy undertones. Lots of sharp citrus and a slightly sour note on the palate, although there’s some subtle residual sweetness, lending a bittersweet feel. Classic saison with just a little je ne sais quoi extra.