Fantôme Printemps

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

Cloudy and medium golden; fluffy white head. Soft and smooth; light and creamy carbonation. Malty (cookies, bread dough) and yeasty throughout. Very balancing bitterness. Spicy aroma. Finish is kind of drying and lingers with quite a few flavors (sweet orange, zesty lemon, big pepper, gentle clove, and some other spices I can’t seem to define). Pleasant beer. Fairly easy to drink, but it still kept my interest through the whole bottle.

Pours a hazy gold, good size white head. Aroma of hay and sour apples. Quite peppery flavor, apples in there as well, along with that slight sour funk that I’ve come to really enjoy.

Hazy caramel colour with a nice tan head-reminiscent of apple cider. Aroma of spice, apples, sugar and floral hops. Medium-bodied; Spicey pepper flavour with some mushrooms and tons of other nuances. Overall, a great and complex beer that makes it hard for me to differentiate all the flavours, as usual from Fantome! I sampled this 75 cL bottle on 15-May-2004 at the May RB Party in Toronto, Onatrio.

Hay. Aroma. What aroma? Subtle to say the least. Slight aroma of old red apples, mixed nuts, pears, toasted malts and other light fruits. Lacking the usual Fantome magic. First that miserable Black Ghost, now this very poor offering. An underlying light fruitiness with notes of pear, apple, honey, caramel, orange and lemon and just a small hint of that Fantome yeast taste that I usually love. Most of their beers are so distinctive. This isn’t. Not special to say the least.

A murky coppery-brown orangey concoction that first seemed like aspicy apple cider. Further sniffing however revealed other fruits in there too - citrus and pear maybe, along with plenty of yeast. Had a great smooth sweet/sour blend through the cider flavour and a somewhat dry bitter finish. Definitely would drink this again - cheers to IPFreely and Dougshoemaker for this one.

Cloudy gold color with almost no head. Musty/earthy aroma. Flavor starts off tart with unidentifiable spices in the background. Finishes crisp, clean and dry. A really nice saison.

This ghost is a pretty, cloudy orange beer, with a head that seems to grow. The aroma is herbal, with hay and medium spices. The taste is of lemon rind, with a sharp, lively - even acidic palate.

75cl bottle, 2004 bottling Lovely pour! Light lemony barnyard nose. Lemon, peppery, spicy beer. Light drinking with some lingering complexity(herbs in the finish?). Super. Has that "what am I tasting?" mysterious quality. Great mix of barnyard, herbs, hops, and malt...nothing seems to be fighting, they just exist together in harmony. (21/08/04) Same vintage bottle, drinking this one 18APR05.........I’m glad to see I rated this one so high, and I might even think it should be bumped up a bit, but it matters not...what stood out to me most in this drinking was the malt...a very nice malty beer, with good body, and lots of subtle hints and allusions. Simply wonderful.