Fantôme Saison

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

Corked and capped bottle pours a cloudy amber body with a large beige head that leaves generous lacing. Funky aroma is earthy, spicy, lemony, fruity melon, herbal, and peppery. Nice touch of caramel underneath. Medium body with sparkling carbonation. Taste is complex. Fruity sweetness balances a lemony dryness, complimented by notes of earthy funk, spicy pepper and coriander, and herbal hops. Nice pastoral feel. This would be one of my desert island beers.

Bottle. Strong gueuzey pineapple lemon, grapefruit, warm. Punchy. Mouth is pineappley warm, juicy and fizzy. Finishes slightly dry and sharp, never escaping that under-ripe pineapple. Excellent beer if a bit odd.

I really like Belgian style, but I wasted $15 on this bottle. Cloudy amber appearance. Winey aroma. Taste was totally unexpected. Taste was more like a wine vinegar, and left a vinegary after taste. I guess the "Gods" have different taste buds than this mere mortal.

Straw color, beautiful huge head. Aroma was fruity with a touch of barnyard funk. Flavor had really just a tinge of barnyard funk but dominated by a peach/apricot fruity flavor with maybe a touch of pear. A touch of hop bitterness kept the very sweet nature from being overpowering. Not "crisp" and maybe a tad thin, but excellent nonetheless.

Dull haze in a rich golden pour. Bubbly and bursting with life. Aroma lets out a lot of impressively outhouse oriented stink; this doesn’t come off with the pleasant, juicy funk of other examples but suggests tanks that never got the vermin excrement cleaned out of them. Beneath the rancidness there’s a sweet perfume of almond, pancake batter and caramelized sugar bringing it back to something forgiveable, and this seems to blanket in the uncomfortable beginning with continuous pours from the unsettled bottle, giving rich waves of golden fruit and sticky, sweet rice. Tastes very sweet and musty, a bit bland, but lit up with a lot of zesty mineral and spice; pear, apple, old pineapple, honey and champagne are cut through with mint, chlorine, and pistachio, while the sweetness becomes oily and earthy. Browned apple and mushy banana begin to creep in, souring the freshness of the fruit flavors with a musty attic effect that arrives with the right degree of spontaneity. Palate is spritzy and medium bodied; in perfect balance for a saison both refreshing and fulfilling. Brett starts to kick in with lemon juice, though mildly, conceding a bit of vanilla extract sweetness and caramel before pulsing with an intense, spicy dryness. Tart, but never sour. Alive and weird. A true start to finish experience.

750 I got 1 1/2 years ago from Belgian Shop! Nose very much tart apples and horseblanket with some light spices; hazy gold with a medium glass-lacing yellow-tinged head;flavor repeats the aplliness with only minor tartness, along with spiciness and some very minor hop notes! From the growth down the bottleside from the cork to the surface I frigured major brett! Probably my new favorite saison!

Cloudy copper apricot; aroma of various fruits, flowers, spices, straw, citrus, lemon. Flavors also include honey. Fun, fresh and lively...tasted many times and this latest batch fresh is a dandy.

Small, tight white foam tops a slightly hazy deep gold brew, smells of oranges, funk and flowers, tastes of lemons, with a little herbiness, faint hint of chives, a touch of sugar sweetness, some tropical fruit, very smooth texture, medium body, absolutely delicious.