Fantôme Santé 15!
Brasserie Fantôme

Enjoyed this one immensely. My favorite Fantome. One of the absolute highlights of my beer drinking life.

Smells tart, quite funky, barnyard. An underlying hint of the classic Fantome apricot / green strawberry yeast character. I wonder if this was barrel aged. Smells like a stellar gueuze, more than a saison.

Taste is perfect. Moderately sour, balanced, tiniest bit sweet, wonderful long, long, long lingering finish of tart funky deliciousness.

Mouthfeel is spot on. No harsh tannins, no viscous body, Just beautifully light and drinkable. Could not be improved. I will go to great lengths to acquire more of this. One of the best beers I've ever had. Transcendant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

750ml bottle into a tall tulip

A: Pours a slightly hazy golden color with two finger head. Poor retention and lacing.

S: Strong stone fruit, lemon peel, and light lactic acid. Musty funk adds to the complexity. Quite funky.

T: Apricot and musty funk work very well together. Lightly sour, the funk mellows this beer out. It stays quite dry, yet stays funky and fruity. Extremely good.

M: Medium thickness with a nice, strong carbonation.

O: Such a good balance of dry, fruity, and funky. I really enjoy this Saison.

 

Bottle from Etre Gourmet. Served in a Russian River tulip.

A - Lightly tan foam settles to a collar, a few wisps, and minimal lacing. Hazed apricot body.

S - Aroma is very complex, with a mixture of dirty, funky, and spicy yeast notes, sharp grains, loads of citrus, peach and apricot malt character, perhaps a touch of candi sugar, and the Pez-like note I get from many Fantôme offerings. Weird, and not entirely cohesive; sometimes I'd smell it and it seemed awesome, and then other times it seemed terrible.

T - The taste is largely dominated by juicy orange flesh and tangerine zest flavors, with a light caramel, bready, and candi/Pez malt backdrop. There's some lactic sourness developing that lends this a quasi-Berliner quality to it, but I don't think there's any wheat in the recipe. Doesn't have the same earthy and funky character as the aroma, but I think that's a positive actually. Sean said it reminded him of a mimosa (more so than Mimosa), and I don't think that's far off base.

M - Pleasant active carbonation, medium body with a juicy texture, sticky citrus finish, and a strange burn that seems wholly inappropriate for a 7% beer. Not sure if it was lactic acidity of alcohol, but I started to get reflux symptoms almost immediately.

D - Letting this warm up improved it significantly, as some of the sulfur and dirty yeast character dissipating and let the citrus and stone fruits come out more. A puzzling and enigmatic entity, but on the whole enjoyable. We finished off the bottle quite handily.

Poured into a tulip. From 2011.

2.5 A: Moderately hazed light orange color. Two fingers of fizzy white head that fizzes away quickly and leaves no lacing.

4.5 S: Like Sante 12 and 13, this has notes of lime and pithy rind, which I really enjoy. Like 12, this has a lime margarita vibe - a strong one. Aside from that, there's lemon, apple, and plenty of funk and floral. Outdoorzy funk featuring wildflowers and apple orchard. Herbal floweriness if that makes sense. Jasmine and lilac. Some hints of wet, rotting wood and forest after a rain. All in all, this smells fucking great.

4.0 T: Lemon and lime lead the taste with apple fruitiness secondary. Again there is a strong lime margarita vibe, but this vintage leans more toward beer than 12 did. Hay and grassiness. Apple orchard and woody funk. A touch of basement must. Moderately tart, just enough to give a light pucker. Not as flowery or as herbal as the nose, but this there underneath. Quite tasty.

4.0 M: Lighter medium body. Light, spritzy carbonation. Incredibly smooth without really being crisp or creamy. Somewhere in the middle I guess.

4.5 D: Another fantastic beer from Fantome. They truly are the masters of the style. No faults other than the head retention and more than solid everywhere else.