Fantôme Printemps

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

Cloudy pale orangey amber hue, excellent carbonation and thick head formation. Sweet nectarine aroma with dry, grassy, lemony hops. Sweet nectarine palate with biting bitter hoppiness. Pretty tastey stuff but could have had a little more depth for its style.

750mL Bottle. (Approximately a 2006). Brett dry pear nose. Dusty hay and barn. Plums right on the tree. Some indication of wildness. Subdued. Breezy. Pours a crystal clear gold, with a soapy white rim. Nice look. Good carbonation at this age. Crazy flavor! This is so complex and light. There’s vibrant, forward Tellicherry black peppercorns, Myrrh and ginger. Spicing is right up there, but melds beautifully with the yeast and the malt. There’s light Fantome funk, a signature. Spice shapeshifts into some more complex, perfume-like incense notes. So well integrated with the beers. There’s no way this is 8%! It’s so light, airy, refreshing and crisp. The nip of funk and yeast add a rounded edge of character to the beer. A long, dry lemony hop presence rounds out the long smack on this beer. This is fucking amazing stuff. Thanks Sean for the hookup!

Courtesy SoLan. Pours a cloudy amber color, with a small off white head. Smells of funked out fruits in typical Fantome fashion. Some definite spices, with a good dose of apple esters. The apple is quite profound in the flavor as well. A mixture of funk and spices is present to balance out the fruitiness a bit and give it some complexity. Another well done saison, but you have to figure that coming from these guys.

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.

This is my least favorite Fantome. This was not as good as the others I’ve had from them. Aroma was dirt, earth and funk. Pour was a hazy orange with nice sediment. Taste was nice but not great. Some pear, peach and fruit cocktail with a hint of funk and no carbonation. I love a good yeasty heavily carbonated saison, this was far from that.

Gold with a white head and webbed lacing. Barnyardy and gamey. Some horseblanket. Sour. Flavors are very mellow. Spicy. Fruity. Citrus fruits mostly. Sour palate. So nice.

Very large light orange colored head of medium sized bubbles. Dense and creamy on top. Awesome carbonation. Spicy grassy aroma. Lots of pepper and straw. Color is a dark orangish brown. Spicy and dry and a little tart. Fizzy in the mouth. Little dandelion greens and some other bitter green leafy stuff. Dry and lingering spicy aftertaste. Some bitter hops presence also. Little noticable alcohol and warming. Palate is a little thicker that most saisons. More malts that most. A decent saison.

Hazy amber-orangeish hue, with a rocky beige head, yeasty, winey fruitiness, with a nice spicy nose of coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla, with some ripe apples fruity notes, toasted malt, sort of musky feeling in the aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate with a yeasty winey fruitiness character, of ripe apples, raisins, vinous notes, funkiness, leading towards an acidic fruity peppery finish. I’m less impress of this one, than the firt time i tasted in spuyten duyvel 2004.