Fantôme Strange Ghost

Brewed by Brasserie Fantôme
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Soy-Erezée, Belgium

Dark reddish brown color with short pure white head. The aroma is definetly strange yet appealing: fresh pine, cloves, sweet malt, and many other herbal notes. The flavor is quite complex although not overwhelming, with notes of spearmint tea, cloves, caramel malt, and pine. Very smooth and refreshing, leaving an almost mint like feel in my mouth.

Pours a reddish brown with a bubbly head. Aroma is very mild while the beer is cool but as it warms, there’s a real interesting mix of cocoa, mustard, wood, herbal teas (mint, echinacea?). It’s definitely funky in a wild yeast way, but very earthy, and the yeast is an ingredient, not the feature. Tart woody and leafy taste, very tingly like mustard (but without really tasting like it), and very dry. Finishes very dry, woody and subtle but noticable hop flavor that yields little bitterness. Dry, earthy, funky, and tart is how I’d describe this beer, but the flavors are so well blended it’s very tough to decipher. Apparantly they put tons of weird spices and stuff in their beers, but they did it well cause I can barely notice any adjunct qualities. Medium mouthfeel, drinkable, and slick. I wish it were creamier, actually. Interesting beer, my first from Fantome and hopefully not my last.

750ml bottle, vintage unknown
Murky brown muddy colored body, with a charred tan and brown colored head, consisting of medium to large sized bubbles, with patchy and spotty brown yeast specks floating on top. Fantome Strange Ghost. First impressions of the aroma would be ginger and apple cinnamon, with some lighter notes of cardamom, medicinal maple, and finally some heavy bran muffin and yeast scents. It has a very strange flavor, probably one of the weirdest beers I’ve ever had, with flavors of bran, crackers, ginger, a certain “dog food” flavor, and some sweet oranges and sugar, most notable in the back. A good beer, very unique, and very weird. I’m usually turned off by anything resembling ginger in a beer, but this one is nice.

Courtesy mgumby10. Dark, cloudy, reddish brown body. Thin layer of bubbles on the surface. Soapy, sudsy lacing that creeps its way back down the glass, rejoining the body. Very unique aroma that is dominated by peppermint, with an agave nectar sweetness, flowers, and a tea-like herbaceousness. The flavor doesn’t show nearly as much mint as the nose. It is present, but the taste turns towards lemony with minty highlights. Again, the agave-like sweetness is there to mellow the minty-lemon tea flavors. Mild herbs add to the complexity. Medium body that goes down smooth. Clean finish. Aroma trumps the flavor. Nice, unique brew.

Courtesy Mgumby10. Pours a hazy, cloudy, murky brown. Very little head. There is no mistaking the one of the flavor compontents, this is a mint-a-polooza, with some hard spices such as nutmeg and mace dominate the back finish. The mint component has more of an extract aroma, not like freshly muddled mint. The flavor is very minty with a refreshing tartness that seems to cut through the malt and herbs.

Pours a cloudy caramel with a light tan head. Wow, spicy, minty, clove, nutmeg flavors all abound. Really interesting aromas. I like it. The taste is alot different than the smell. The flavor is more fruity and tart than spicy. The mintiness is there, but more in the background. The fruits are there, but there is a decent sweet maltiness to it as well. The mint really comes out though, in the finish and the aftertaste. Really interesting brew, which I should come to expect with these guys.

750ml, pours ruby with khaki creamy head. nose is loaded mint leaves, lemon, and ginger. flavor is intially a touch sour with mint leaves coming through along with hints of toffee. alc well hidden. mouth feel is full. as always fantome surprises and impresses but this is too mint focused for me. it does finish with an odd sweaty quality that is actually thirst quenching and demands another sip. imo, a fantome-style beer for sure, but i prefer many of their others more.

Bottle sampled with stegosaurus. Pours a deep mahogany with a small white head. Aroma of herbs, yeast, lemon, and some fruit. A very unique flavor with white pepper, ginger, and other herbs with a slightly bitter finish.