Fantôme Printemps

750ml Bottle: pours a cloudy yellow gold with some orange highlights, dense white head, herb and flower aromas, sour aroma with faint sweet scents, faint spice and wood fragrances, a earthy yeast fragrance, light on the palate, a spicy pepper taste on the tongue which trails off but lingers into the finish, grass and hay taste, some pilsner flavor, cider sour in the mouth but not near as sour as the Fantome Saison which had a over powering sour, some citrus fruit flavor in the background as it warms, pouring the sediment cuts the sour some, I enjoyed this more then the Fantome Saison.

Bottle. Pours into a wine glass with a large, puffy, billowing head. Very spicy and yeasty notes become a bit astringent on the palate, quite bready and dry, but overall a nice saison. Certainly not fantome’s best.

Bottle sampled. poursorange/amber with a large off-white head. Aroma of spices, fruit, citrus, and yeast. The flavor is sweet, fruit, spices, citrus, and some detectable hops in the finish. Good brew.

Bottle 750ml. Amber beer with a small white rim. Lots of malt and spicy pepper in the nose. Tastes like tea, malt, citrus and some fruit. Sourrish, bitterish and sweet, almost sticky near the finish. Closest thin to compare this one with is medium bodied ice tea, without alc. cause that is well hidden. Nice.

Poured a amber color with huge head and great lacing. Aroma was a ton of pepper ton. citrus and more pepper. Flavor was pepper caramel and white grapes and some thing that is in hot tea not sure what it was though. Was good.

Well... to start with, for those not in the know... this beer is both capped and corked. Imagine my surprise when I popped the cap off, then noticed I had to dig out my corkscrew. The aroma of this beer is citrus, pepper, and something I can’t quite put my finger on, and it is intriguing. Pours a slightly hazy straw like color, with a tight thin white head. The tase starts with a burst of citrus, followed by an earthy mustiness. Very low carbonation, and a long earthy finish. Not bad, but for the price I paid, and the hype I’ve heard about Fantome, I was expecting better.

Pours an amber color with some reddish hues, very generous Fantome-like head, great lacing, great retention. The aroma was lots ’o pepper, some citrus, lots o’ pepper (Fantome-like). Flavor is peachy, grapey, light caramel, lots of pepper, another spice or two (gingerish, but not ginger, not seemingly coriander either as the feature), earthy, musty, and herbal flavors and spices or hops. Lots of complexity here, as usual with Fantome. The body is full, hearty, well-carbonated. A nice brew, spicey, sour, funky, nice. Not sure how this fits a spring bill, these Fantomes are enjoyable, but drinkable? Dunno if I’d want to session anything like this, bonus points for complexity and originality, though.

Somewhat murky dark-copper body, rapidly dissappearing head, no lacing. Fruity, spicy (white pepper, coriander, kurkuma/koenjit) and tart aroma with brett, but also some caramel, quite a full spectrum, with a prominent yeast backbone. Taste was nicely sharp and citric upfront, and quickly faded into dry tart fruityness, good complexity and good balance. Not much carbonation. A nicely odd saison.