2005?? 750mL bottle (red pepper version) shared with the Montreal crew on 11/6/2005. Thank you so much Martin!
Pours a large amount of creamy, off-white head, very dense, not unlike an Orval head. Dark garnet and mahogany notes swirl about in front of an amber backdrop while miniscule bubbles rise from this unfiltered, bottle conditioned liquid. Plenty of lacing is left on the glass.
The aroma is a subtle mix of lightly sweaty saaz hops, round and clean caramelly sugar notes, light notes of forest underbrush and signature Fantome yeastiness. No pepper noted in the aroma, but my dreams would be realized in the flavor.
First few sips provide a soothing, moderately sweet brown malt blend of light caramel and toffee, with even the faintest hint of chocolate. A bit of bitter black licorice is noted towards the end, while the middle provides a rather muted hops sensation of light hay, green leaves and a slight nuttiness. Yeast apparency/influence is rather clean for a Fantome, but still flavorful and boasting much complexity. Shaping up pretty nicely, I do say, and I havent even got to the good part. . . . .
At first I’m a bit disappointed that I do not find the red pepper, but then after a number of minutes and some warming, there it is. Faint, subtle and tremendously underdone (though with red pepper, that is a good thing), but once I’ve locked on to it, I focus in and my enjoyment of this beer immediately doubles. Just a light capsaicin warming sensation on the very end, that tickles the throat. Once I like something, I usually want a lot of it, but this is just peachy. Just the right level that you couldn’t ever get sick of it (or I couldnt, anyways). And then we have the mouthfeel to discuss. Perfectly tight and expansive with just a hint of slipperiness on the end. There, that was easy. Now the hard part, where do I get more?!?!?!