Saison
(has 7 batches)
Brasserie Fantôme in Soy, Luxembourg, Belgium 🇧🇪
Farmhouse - Saison Regular|
Score
7.58
|
|
This is a tremendously delicious, textural, and fizzy county ale, bright gold colour, citric and sour, reminiscent of a good champagne or lambic but in a class all its own.
Fantôme – Golden ale, 8% alc. by volume, with a wonderfully musty and characterful aroma. There are many drinkers out there who believe this is the “Nectar of the Gods.” Certainly no other brewer makes beer like this, in Belgium or anywhere. How many beers of 8% plus offer such fresh fruitiness? A solid Belgian saison beer at its base, with an unusual overlay of fruitiness.
Fantôme – Golden ale, 8% alc. by volume, with a wonderfully musty and characterful aroma. There are many drinkers out there who believe this is the “Nectar of the Gods.” Certainly no other brewer makes beer like this, in Belgium or anywhere. How many beers of 8% plus offer such fresh fruitiness? A solid Belgian saison beer at its base, with an unusual overlay of fruitiness.
Sign up to add a tick or review
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Vertical, recent bottle vs ~2004 Bottle. New: 7 3 7 3 14 Citrus, cardamom, candy, clove Cloudy amber, white lace Lightly boozy, estery, clove, candy, strawberry Old: 6 3 6 3 13 Cork Milky yellow Cinnamon notes, butter, green apple, Bratapfel, Calvados
Tried
from Bottle
on 18 Dec 2016
at 10:22
8.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 10
Texture 10
Overall 7.5
Cloudy yellow with little white head. Aroma is fizzy tablet, some red berries, lemon juice, some cinnamon. Taste is raspberry sourness, raspberry pip bitterness. Sour but just right. Lots of bubbles, fresh and light on the tongue but with a heavy fluid feel. I also have a version from ~2004 here: 7-4-9-4-14 Its a little darker. Aroma is completely different. Horse blanket, leather, syrup, red berries as well. Taste is not as fresh and sour, and more chalky and sweeter. Apart from that pretty similar. Would not have guessed it’s the same beer though. Newer version: More like orange juice, some apricot. Really sweet. Not bad.
Tried
on 14 Dec 2016
at 13:23
7.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8.5
Alewife, Queens bottle: pours slightly hazed light orange with a small white head. Aroma is funky, spicy, yeasty... really nice smell for those who like it. Taste is somewhat tart. Funky and spicy. Nice complexity. Super soft carbonation. Quite good.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Dec 2016
at 18:30
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Lys brun klar med høyt hvitt skum. Lukter korn, åker, noe eple. Søtlig fruktig lett bitter i smak. Kort.
Tried
on 05 Nov 2016
at 13:41
8.3/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle, courtesy of SinH4, many thanks! Best before end 2019. Pours hazy orange-ish yellow, but the haziness is mostly through me stirring up the bottle a bit too much. A truly marvelous saison with a fruity punchy nose as you could get it from a fresh IPA but also that yeast character that only saison has. Fizzy carbonation adds to a beautiful soft texture and brings out more fruit flavours, orange and mango and a bit of citrus. Lightly acidic and a hint tart, making for a fresh taste. Outstandingly tasty!
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Oct 2016
at 16:34
6.6/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Shared bottle. Murky orangish-brown with virtually no head. Aroma of fruit, citrus, yeast, alcohol. Taste is citrus, white wine, alcohol, spice, and yeast. Good.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Oct 2016
at 23:49
5.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
On tap @ Sunset Grill March 2004.
Pours a lovely thick hazy straw yellow, with light ambers and golds galore.
Even on draft it had a wonderful complex smell. Very grassy, wet straw and dirt, with some sharper herbalesque hops and grainy barley. Medium amount of funky old yeast smell which after warming smelled more thick and sweaty.
Flavor is powerful, tart, complex, dry and spritzy with a strong yeasty/doughy texture but still pleasant enough for a casual drink. Lightly spicey, flavorful herbs, like a wonderful old gueueze but a bit more hoppy and finishing less tart. Some lemon zest on the finish, but doughiness and cobweb flavors persist. Very good, perhaps a bit loose on the overall mouthfeel. 9/5/8/5/18
Rerate, bottled 2016, drunk 9/1716.
I’d been trying to track this down, since the classic from Fantome is near-impossible to find in Massachusetts any more. It’s basically just the seasons, Bris-bonbon and Pissenlit. I feared this had fallen off in recent years, based on every Fantome I’ve had in the past 3 years being mediocre at best.
Sadly, my fears were true and this was a mess of specialty malt, weird vegetal flavors and maybe some metallic notes, as well. Spoiled fruit delivers the death-blow and this is just barely drinkable, especially disappointing given how amazing some bottles of this were back in the 2004-2007 era. I think some batches stand out as some of the best brett/mixed-ferm/truly rustic saisons I’ve ever had.
Sadly, consistency is a big thing in brewing, and Dany seems never to have strived for it, much less attained it. While everyone’s entitled to their lulls and off years (see Dupont), I just don’t have any confidence in this ever regaining its former, rather fleeting glory. Rating is for this most recent batch.
Pours a lovely thick hazy straw yellow, with light ambers and golds galore.
Even on draft it had a wonderful complex smell. Very grassy, wet straw and dirt, with some sharper herbalesque hops and grainy barley. Medium amount of funky old yeast smell which after warming smelled more thick and sweaty.
Flavor is powerful, tart, complex, dry and spritzy with a strong yeasty/doughy texture but still pleasant enough for a casual drink. Lightly spicey, flavorful herbs, like a wonderful old gueueze but a bit more hoppy and finishing less tart. Some lemon zest on the finish, but doughiness and cobweb flavors persist. Very good, perhaps a bit loose on the overall mouthfeel. 9/5/8/5/18
Rerate, bottled 2016, drunk 9/1716.
I’d been trying to track this down, since the classic from Fantome is near-impossible to find in Massachusetts any more. It’s basically just the seasons, Bris-bonbon and Pissenlit. I feared this had fallen off in recent years, based on every Fantome I’ve had in the past 3 years being mediocre at best.
Sadly, my fears were true and this was a mess of specialty malt, weird vegetal flavors and maybe some metallic notes, as well. Spoiled fruit delivers the death-blow and this is just barely drinkable, especially disappointing given how amazing some bottles of this were back in the 2004-2007 era. I think some batches stand out as some of the best brett/mixed-ferm/truly rustic saisons I’ve ever had.
Sadly, consistency is a big thing in brewing, and Dany seems never to have strived for it, much less attained it. While everyone’s entitled to their lulls and off years (see Dupont), I just don’t have any confidence in this ever regaining its former, rather fleeting glory. Rating is for this most recent batch.
Tried
from Draft
on 02 Oct 2016
at 10:27
7.4/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Quite nice. Light florals and some citrus. Light oak and some pineapple. Something interesting here I can’t quite place. Very nice. Tap at sovereign.
Tried
from Can
on 01 Oct 2016
at 14:48
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Pours hazy orange from the bottle. No visible head. Looks like freshly squeezed melon juice. Aroma is fruity, lightly industrial. Taste is tart, sour, lightly bitter. Refreshing. A hint of spice. Decent stuff, even if not particularly nuanced.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 Sep 2016
at 12:51
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle at home... Golden amber... Thin white lacing.... Soft sweet floral orange fruit nose... Zesty orange.. Dry zezty orange fruit
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Sep 2016
at 11:12