Fantôme Strange Ghost

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

Hazy deep darkish honeyed orange hue. Small unlasting capping of dullish white foam grows up quickly from the pour then fades to a bubbly skim and collar. Drippy and non sticky lace with only a few spots staying. Herbal crazy nose of super high pitched bittersweet floralness and raw lemon. Dandylions, wheat grass, white grape, corriander, and other uniquely herbal aromas bring a brigade of dizzying sniffing enjoyment each time its taken in. Has just a touch of barnyard stuff buzzing about, but the spicey herbal character remains quite true, strong, and beautiful. Awesome nose! Taste is nearly as dizzying but somehow comes across nice and mellowing with a solid herbal tone over a smallish toasted pale malt and bready doughy sweetness. Kinda honeyish really, especially as it goes, with a solid mix of raw orange and lemon ascents, all the while keeping a firm little creamy sense and a wonderfully natural spicey kick that delivers a uniquely floral, fauna, earthy, grassy effect. A surprise awaits nearly every sip that wraps up all sorts of herbs and spices that’ll keep ya guessing. Feel is about medium, actually kinda dulled in comparison to the overall spicyness it carries. Which is, again, a unique complexity to the overall, taken in conception of how the beer is moving. It has a certain yeasty grab and underscored malty tang, but the complex spices and herbs really turn it into a whole nother complexion of texture and tone. Wow, this has an immense complexity about it that fits the Fantome family very well. I really liked how it wasn’t over the top all that much as its funkyness is quite tame. The sourness well controlled and the bitterness well-rounded in earthyness of herbs and grasses. There’s nothing strange about a beer this good other than trying to figure out what exactly those spices and herbs are.

750 mL bottle purchased at Liquor Max in Loveland, CO. Pours brown with an average, frothy, off-white head, lasting with fair lacing. Aroma is average malt (bread, cookie, nutty), average hops (herbs, grass), average yeast (earth) with notes of rosemary. Medium bodied, sticky texture, average carbonation, and a metallic finish. Average duration, light sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

Capped and corked bottle from the Dilly Deli. Poured clear light brown color with a large fizzy light brown head that was mostly lasting with fair lacing. Deep sour citrus and spice aroma. Medium to full body with a sticky texture. Medium spicy bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet ginger finish of moderated duration. Spicy complex beer.

Poured from a bottle. Poured a nice, light amber color with a nice beige head. Nice aroma of spices, yeast, and some funk/tartness. Very interesting taste with tons of spices. Semi-sweet, somewhat bitter, and some funk. Like 1Fast said, it seems waxy on the palate. A decent beer, but not something I see myself buying again. At least not anytime soon.

Pours a murky brown in color with a nice off white head. Smell is spice and funk. This is an absolutely wonderful beer. Taste is complimented perfectly between the spice, cacao, and some tartness. I love the Fantome Saison, but this has eclipsed that as my favorite. A great beer.

Thanks Dave. It is guestimated that this beer is 1.5 years old at the minimum. The beer pours to a glowing orange body with lots of suspended tiny particulate. A creamy light beige head. The aroma is spruce, Christmas trees, lemon extract, saison spices and yeasts. The flavor is what I would expect to find if I ate a pine Christmas smoke candle with odd spices. The palate is bitter and waxy with a ton of spices.

From a bottle that had frozen once but looks and tastes just fine. Clear pink-orange body under a foamy white head. Nice aroma of spruce and orange flesh. Similar spicing in the flavor - perfume, orange peel, spruce. Kind of reminds of a fancy hand soap. Nevertheless it’s a very tasty, refreshing beer.

My first Fantome. 750 mL bottle. Pours an extremely cloudy red-brown color with a creamy off-white head. Aroma of ginger... really not much else. Reminds me of ginger ale. Taste is also a lot of ginger... not a lot of sweetness like ginger ale... just straight-up ginger. This is a strange beer. If I were more of a ginger fan, I might be into it... but not so much.