Double Blaireau
Brasserie Fantôme

another one from the animals friends project, stoked to see these trickling into the states, cool art on this, neat beer in the bottle, this one was a little unexpected, both maltier and hoppier than i am used to from these guys, but their famous house yeast still prominent, some green glass skunk to it, but it works overall, bold and grainy, maybe autumnal in vibe, notes of chestnut and raisin in the aroma with the oxidation and the grassy hops. this is reddish bronze but short of brown, somewhat dense, lightly cloudy, and without as much high rising head as many of their beers have, not flat either, just a bit more tame on the rise and retention. past their yeast it smells almost german to me, like there is an element of doppelbock or something, concentrated bready malt that hints at almond, bread crusts, and molasses, although this isnt really sweet to drink. nice with white pepper, saffron, and black tea characteristics the ferment is throwing off, which is true in the flavor too. its also rather hoppy, green lawn and green tea, decently high alpha for a saison type, kind of presents like a biere de garde with the fuller grain character in the flavor, twangy without being acidic really, possibly aged awhile like that too, the green glass accelerates it some im sure. dark toast, maple, hickory, and bran as it warms, trace citrus, pipe tobacco, and hot pavement. really weird mix of flavors but it comes together, soft feeling, some hoppy linger, maybe a pop of graham cracker late, every sip i get a little something different, and despite all the malt it stays appropriately fermentation driven. fun bottle to share, but certainly not among the all time greats from fantome, which is to say its not one of the best saisons of all time, but i really enjoyed its uniqueness, and it warms up well. this series has been cool so far.