Bottle Service

Day #657 Dark White / Brasserie Fantome, Soy, Belgium
Previously from this brewery: Printemps, Dark White, Saison, and more Saison

I'm tired.  A long week is finally over.  The end.

Well, the end of the complaining, not the post.  Today's beer is a Belgian, which was oddly completely impossible to find in Belgium.  Let me explain.  In every town I went to, there were beer bars and beer shops, all of which stocked some of the most wonderful beers the world has ever seen.  However, without fail, not a single one of them stocked any Brasserie Fantome.  The closest I came to finding it was a bar in Bruges that had empty bottles and glassware on display from every beer (or so they claim) made in Belgium. An empty bottle.... that's all.  No fair.  I mean, Kristof, the owner of Brouwerij Fort Lapin said that if he could only drink one beer from Belgium (besides his own), he'd drink Fantome.  And yet... empty handed.

However, while you can't find this beer in Belgium (at least in Flanders), you can find beers from Fantome at Teresa's Next Door in Wayne, PA. Fairly odd, but apparently they ship most of their product overseas, where there's an eager audience just waiting for it.  Works for me.

Seriously, behind glass
In case of emergency, break glass

This bottle of Dark White poured with an amber color, and a good sized fluffy white head.  There's a sour, citrus aroma.  I wish I could just sit and inhale this aroma all day; make a cologne from it, perhaps.  When you take a sip, there's a delightful sour quality, with good floral flavors and a big peppery spice bite on the finish.  Refreshing and interesting.  Is it as good as the standard issue Saison?  Maybe not, but that might be my favorite beer in the world, so this one is still pretty amazing.

There's a "BBB" one the label to shout out the Burgundian Babble Belt, a group of beer connoisseurs in Belgium who have spread around the world.  This beer was a special project for BBB; first released in 2006 to raise funds for a sick child in France.

Thing to Think About Today:
Hard to find bottle?  John Mayer covering Message in a Bottle.  Good night, and sleep tight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYys-ZjNrg

"I hope that someone gets my/message in a bottle...."

Day 647: Fantome Dark White and Spooooooky

Somewhere along the road of blogging about all this craft beer, I noted my great fear and general hatred of clowns. I've always been a little creeped out by them and their ghostly pale faces, overly jovial smiles and the slightly murderous glint in their eyes, but I was pushed over the edge by Stephen King's best-seller It. Pennywise is pure evil. To this day I cannot walk across a sewer grate without fear of looking down into the devilish eyes of a homicidal clown.

Imagine my reaction when I read there's a lunatic in Northampton, England dressed as a clown just creeping around scaring adults and children alike. (Story here).

Terrifying clown pointing at a cameraman? Hell no. Photo courtesy of 9News

I'd be packed up and moved to a foreign country so fast, it would melt that awful paint right off his face. Clowns. Ugh.

Let's talk about something that doesn't want to make me scream and curl up in the fetal position.

This is the Fantome Dark White, a Belgian ale brewed with spices. It poured a hazy reddish brown ale iwth an off-white head. It smells of Belgian candi sugar, raisins and toast. The flavor is grainy, earthy, fruity. There's an underlying tartness with a nice dry finish. The spices are quite notable with white pepper being most dominant.

Beer stats
Style: Saison
ABV: 4%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from Fantome
Printemps, a saison, and more on that saison

Day 633: Fantome Printemps

Throughout the entire vacation in Belgium, Mr. Blog Named Brew was on the lookout for any offerings from Fantome. Fantome is a one-man operation in Soy, Belgium that specializes in saison style beers. Much to our surprise, it is easier to get Fantome beer in the States than it is in Belgium. Go figure! 

So mere days after arriving home this summer, I hit up Teresa's Next Door (an excellent Belgian beer bar in Wayne, Pennsylvania) and bought up one of each of whatever Fantome bottles they had in stock. 

This was the first bottle I broke into--Fantome Printemps saison. It's a Belgian ale brewed with spices and from what I could gather the recipe changes with the seasons each year. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't discern what year I had. 

It poured a hazy, medium golden color with a sticky white head. It smells spicy...lots of black pepper. The flavor is smoky and kind of bacony. Sadly this beer doesn't do it for me. As it warmed up the smokiness turned into more of a wood ash flavor and really overpowered any nuanced saison flavors. 

Beer stats

Style: Saison

ABV: 8% 

IBUs: Unknown

Rating: Average

Previously reviewed from Fantome 

Mr. Blog Named Brew's review of a saison that drives a great deal of traffic to our site thanks to King Boo!

My review of the same saison

I am the Keymaster. Are you the Gatekeeper?

Beer #51 Fantome Saison / Brasserie Fantome, Soy, Belgium 
Remember how I was going to be in Seattle this week?  Yeah, about that.  Maybe not!  I'll find out soon, but I need to play it by ear for a bit.  Business travel sounds glamorous, until you actually do it with some regularity.  Then?  It loses the luster.

Thankfully, I know one way to solve life's little problems - by drinking beer.  Tonight's selection is a saison from Fantome.  This beer has a hazy orange color, and hits you instantly with a citrus (tangerine?) aroma. The taste follows the aroma and has an orange and sour apple fruit taste with just enough of an earthy, grassy finish.  Really nice balance here; complex and refreshing all at the same time.  Plus, the logo from the bottle is clearly related to King Boo from the Mario Brothers series of Nintendo games.  See?   Practically twins!

For the record, King Boo is Marci's go-to character for our Mario Kart battles.  Anyway, this brewery is named for a local legend, the ghost of Countess Bertha de la Roche.  Her spirit still reportedly haunts a nearby castle.  Not sure if I believe in ghosts, but I believe in delicious, unique beer, and this one delivers.  It may not end up there at the end of the year, but for now, it gets a coveted spot in the Top 25.

Thing to Think About Today:
This would be a good time to tell you about when I saw Ghostface Killah perform live as part of a summer music festival (with Method Man and Raekwon backed by The Roots).  However, that's a story that I'll save for a later day.  No my friends, I think we'll stick with a classic today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u4FHmId-Y0

We're going to play Twister, do some breakdancing!!

Beer 51: Brasserie Fantome

I just want to eat dinner, drink this fantastic and very interesting beer and chill out.  It’s been that kind of day.  I’ll try to be profound tomorrow.

Tonight’s beer is from Brasserie Fantome.  It is the brewery’s saison and it is quite good.  Gary picked up this beer based on two reasons.  1. He’s on a saison kick.  2.  The label.  Seriously.  How can you not buy a beer with that label?

I poured it into my trusty tulip glass.  It was shockingly opaque and a wild apricot color.  Interesting.  It poured with a white head that disappeared in short order.  A good swirl released light fruit notes, maybe grape but more tree based fruit -- like a green apple?  There were the requisite hops as well.  It had good carbonation and drank thin.  Aside from the fruit from the scent carrying through to the taste, I also got something very organic and earthy.  Almost a savory food flavor that none of my go to beer adjectives could describe.  It finishes with a bit bitter and good saison pepper.  This is a very unusual saison and I really enjoy it.

What I can’t figure out is whether this is Fantome’s standard saison or if it is one of the seasonals for which the brewer is known.  I would love for it to be a seasonal version because he uses closely guarded mystery ingredients and I want that to cover that earthy, organic flavor I couldn’t place.  Either way, I’m hooked and will definitely be on the lookout for more of this one.