Fantôme Nuit Noire (Rhum Barrel)
Brasserie Fantôme

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a near black, very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with no noticeable carbonation; somewhat viscous pour; a couple of stray bubbles so no lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, dark chocolate, well dried dark fruit, molasses and tobacco. Flavor is dark toasted malt, bakers chocolate, dates, well dried plums, coffee and faint tobacco. Faint summer spices in the finish. Medium bodied with moderate to heavy creaminess. My second Nuit Noire (after De Garde barrel) and this one is not as scary looking; it has the same complete lack of visible carbonation, not sludge nor nor much residue in the bottom of the bottle. The body is lighter, but still fairly thick; flavor is dense. The overall flavor impression is similar to the last one; rich chocolate, molasses and the same odd umami character with some dark unidentifiable fruit and hints of coffee and tobacco; the latter less pronounced in this version. Once again it seems too thick and full bodied to be enjoyable, but is quite pleasant to drink, although I think the 300ml bottle is an ideal serving size because this is big in flavor and ABV. All Nuit Noire seem to be category defiant; I stand my earlier opinion that needs a similar European version of strong ale to define it. Whoever chose Belgian strong dark ale probably got as close as possible to the style as possible for a continental beer and much better than using saison, but this doesn't really fit the style; no candi malt nor Belgian yeast character. Another very drinkable, interesting and category defying beer from Fantome. So glad these are available in my area.

Bottle purchased and drank at Churchkey in Washington, DC.

This one pours a fairly dark-ish black color, with a very small head, and no lacing.

This smells like vey spicy rum, lots of dark fruit, dusty bitter chocolate, and oak.

This is basically Fantome’s take on a barrel aged stout, which is cool to see. Like most Belgian stouts or Belgian dark strong ales, it’s got a big dark fruit presence – prunes, red wine, raisins, etc. There’s a lightly sweet but kind of dusty and bitter dark chocolate note, with oak, and a sharp and spicy rum note. It’s also quite smokey.

This is very, very lightly carbonated, but surprisingly not all that boozy. It’s not a beer that’s particularly easy to drink, due to the low carbonation, and the intensity of flavors. It’s very much a slow sipper.

I really like how different this is from most of what Fantome does, but it’s still got that signature Fantome weirdness.