Bottle shared during the RBScSG2015. Pours very hazy yellow with a small white head leaving a small trace on the glass while dissipating. Smell is fruity with crackers, white bread, tropical fruits, marzipan, hay, dry soil and lemon zest. Taste is sweet, bitter and fruity. Mouthfeel is tiny dry, soft, tiny astringent, tiny boozy and medium bodied. Finish is slightly sweet and tiny bitter with white bread, tropical fruits, marzipan covered baked pears, hay, dry soil, lemon zest and hints of barnyard. Bit cloying and fairly dull.

Towering, dense & fine yellow head, slick, over fully hazy orange beer. Malty, ever so slighlty smokey, spicy, herbal, somewhat grassy aromas. Toasted, fiery, lipstick, lightly coloured malts, faint fruitiness, spicy bitterness. Faraway impression of coffee. Burning MF, strengthened by the heavy carbonation. Quite slick, maybe medium bodied. Well, yeah. I don’t have high blood pressure, so I’m safe.

Bottle @ Grand Tasting RBSCSG 2015. Pours a hazy golden pale amber color with a longlasting white head. Has a fruity malty spicy yeasty aroma. Fruity malty spicy yeasty guarana flavor. Has a fruity malty spicy yeasty finish.

Fantôme saison with guaranà, the fruit which enjoys great popularity in Brazil nowadays as a source of caffeine in energy drinks and the like. This comes from a 75 cl bottle, as usual with Fantôme, bought at Wijnegemse Drankenhal. Very stable and densely structured, whipped cream-like, pale yellowish beige head sustained by a very lively fizz in the beer, which has an orange blonde colour with ’old gold’ hue and some yeast bits here and there, but otherwise clear initially, as it should be, but of course turning cloudy to even murky as the bottle is emptied. Estery and bit spicy aroma of a lot of red apple peel, persimmon, mango, passion fruit, earth, raw almond, green tea, biscuit, dry white wine, chamomille, jute, straw, thyme, dried weeds. Crisp and fruity onset, hints of mango, peach and banana with a mild spicy edge to it which grows in the middle and which likely represents the guaranà; there is a subtle lemony sour accent lurking underneath as well, but it hides beneath the esters and the spices. The mouthfeel is smooth and slick, with tingling carbo. Spicy yeastiness and toasted malts make up the middle phase and the end is deeply bittering, with an earthy, very herbal (almost tea-like), long and drying hoppiness, that faint lemony sourish touch again as well as warming, ’jenever’-like alcohol which is already more or less apparent in an early stage. I have had a fondness for this brewery’s endless variations on the saison time, long before it became fashionable as it is now; this one has all the properties of a true, authentic (strong) saison, much like Prignon’s regular Fantôme beer, but the exotic ingredient does add a (thin) extra layer. It adds an edgy but soft spiciness to the whole without overpowering, though there is a certain wryness to it at some point. But that is merely nitpicking, this is an enjoyable Fantôme in all respects.

Bottle @ weekly tasting shared by Joes. Hazy yellow - orange color, huge off-white head that lasts for a long time. Aroma is malts, lightly herbs, metallic, yeast. Taste malts, yeasty, herbal, lightly bitter. One of the best Fantomes I’ve tried I think.

Bottle @ joes. Golden colour with a large white head. Smells bubblegum, sweet, yeast, malts. Tastes loads of herbs and spices, yeast. Medium body, heavy carbo.

Flaska från Etre Gourmet. Smak och doft av jäst, humle, örter. Frisk, sträv, lagom sötma, te- och citrusskalsbeska.

Flaska från Etre Gourmet. Först sötfruktig smakbild med mandarin/apelsin physalis och halspastill som ganska snabbt blir riktigt torr och citrusbesk med en touch kryddig besk snaps och lite peppar. Smakbilden blir lite väl kluven men funkar iaf hyfsat.