Bottle. Color: Dark reddish brown, frothy beige head. Aroma: Dark malt, subtle coffee notes, hints of nuts. Taste: Slightly sour like coffee can be, moderate sweet and light bitterness, going to moderate at finish. Notes of coffee, mocha, dark malt, caramel and chocolate hints. Light hints of farmyard and leathery funk. Light funky hints, spicy hints. Medium body, average carbonation. A little more bitterness and spicy at the finish, but not 'very bitter taste' as stated on the label. Saison with subtle coffee and quite a lot of carbonation. Nice Fantôme.

Surprised by the taste. Nice take on a saison. My bottle was very carbonated though, not sure if that's normal. #newhouse

2016 bottle, many thanks kraddel! Unclear deep amber color with beige head. Aroma is cherries, coffee, woody, very balanced. Taste is lightly tart cherries, coffee, light funk. Oily mouthfeel with low carbonation. Very weird, but nice and balanced.

14.02.2015, 0,75l bottle sampled @ Bergen International Whisky & Beer Festival:
Nice creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is slightly dry, hay, mild espresso, minerals, bark, yeast, grass, weeds, almonds. Taste is slightly dry mineraly, weeds, bark, wood, hay, yeast, minerals, mild espresso, rope, grass, light malts. Medium bitterness, slightly dry mouthfeel. Nice.

Bottled. A hazy amber beer with a beige head. The aroma has notes of coffee, malt, fruits, and caramel. The flavor is sweet with notes of caramel, fruits, and coffee, leading to a bitter finish.

Bottle at home. Two year old. Has a dark amber colour with a big beige head. Aroma of cocoa, wood, cold coffee, weed, jalapenos, heather, grains, rowan berries and dried apricots. The flavor is more grassy with sweet malt in the background. There�s also some wood, leather and some alcohol. Has a slick and soft mouth feel, full-bodied and medium to heavy bitterness. A one of a kind ale with an interesting aroma. Strange in my opinion. Quite bitter and I feel there must be more to balance it out.

Poured from a 750 ml bottle. Aroma is interesting and not exactly coffee forward with some toasted bread and dark caramel notes. Light nutty notes and fairly fruity with a faint roast note. Stone fruit, pear and red apple with some faint banana. Pours a somewhat hazy, copper red with a medium large, thick, pillowy, light tan head that exhibits decent retention as it slowly recedes. Light lacing and small legs. Flavor is fairly sweet with some light caramel, toasted bread and nut notes. Hints of honey. Moderate red apple and pear notes. Light coffee flavors and faint roast notes. Moderately strong bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation. Low astringency and low, but present alcohol warmth. Overall, a weird beer, but it works better than I was expecting and much better than the dark version. Roast notes are very faint and the coffee character is light and fruity. Its still weird though and not in a particularly good way.

From a 75 cl bottle bought online. Label warns "very bitter taste", but having enjoyed Mikkeller’s 1000 IBU, this cannot scare me... Opens with a pop, but no gushing. Moussy, medium sized, egg-white head dissipating quickly, leaving a rim on the edge of the glass as well as a thin ’mosaic’ of foam in the middle, both of which disappear after several minutes; colour is a fully hazy, ’autumny’ pure copper. Aroma has nothing I’d expect from Fantôme: I get coffee indeed, but more in the sense of coffee liqueur, along with suggestions of old tea bags, candied cherry, ’Haagse hopjes’, strawberry wine, strong butterscotch, lemon zest, perhaps a suggestion of Belgian chocolates with ’praliné’ filling, and then more ’familiar’ hints of freshly fermented farmland, brown rhum, medlar, damp forest floor, unsugared yoghurt, cooked turnip-rooted celery and wet hay. Unexpectedly sourish onset of strong redcurrant, sour cherry and unripe gooseberry, vivid, with medium carbo and some fruity sweetishness piercing through for balance; smooth, lightly oily, supple body, lightly bready and dito caramelly maltiness, in all lighter than expected from this type of beer and ’adorned’ with spicy notes throughout while the initial sourishness continues and even dominates in a lactic, sour yoghurt kind of way, achieving a drying effect till way into the finish, where it is met with a very deep and ’dull’ earthy hop bitterishness, a dash of warming alcohol (but well masked) and some retronasal coffeeish impressions, but faintly so. The redcurrant-like sour effect dominates the palate - clearly indicating something went wrong, as this beer is way more sour than bitter. I suspect the onset of bacterial infection, but even in ignoring this feature, I do not get any serious bitterness out of this, neither hoppy nor roasted or otherwise... I feel cheated in a way: I expected some roasted porter-like brew with the roastiness enhanced by coffee, but what I get, is a kind of strong ’ambrée’ with certain hints of coffee, but only faintly so. This is a strong saison with a trace of coffee but far too mildly so, clearly suffering from an onsetting bacterial infection making it more sour than it was probably intended (the FFF hint in the nose was a warning sign of this); I guess the ’higher’ raters here were lucky enough to find fresh bottles which probably already bore the seeds of this infection without it being active yet. I still love Fantôme no matter what because every bottle I open from this guy always results in something unexpected, but surprises come in either positive or negative ways, and this is a disappointment for sure.