I don't drink Fantôme often, but it's always an adventure. This is a 10-year old bottle of Dark Forest Ghost. A saison. Super funky, sour, and tart. Green pepper, rhubarb, baby's diaper, black pepper, horse blanket, and a lot of earth.
Currently enjoying a Brother Thelonious after a lovely day at Monterey and on the CA-1 down the coast. This has some nice esters that are giving me raisin and prunes. Last time i had this was 19 years ago. Cheers from Bass Lake, CA! Tom
3 Fonteinen - Platinum Blend Had this beer last week and was thinking about posting somewhere. Looks like a dark beer was splattered all over the bottle prior to purchasing. Nevertheless a beer like this caught in the wild is coming back with me at this point. I did also see a couple similar fruited versions, being more of a geuze fan and having had the Golden Blend along with Armond & Gaston and Oude Geuze multiple times, figured I would check this one out. This blend poured very bright orange and had a little more complexity than the Oude Geuze and maybe A&G blend. As noted on the label they used a local hop and a heirloom cereal in the malt grist, with part 4 year aged lambic in the blend. Great imo per usual from these guys. Cheers! My review:
Cross post from WBAYDN today: Onto round 2 and enjoying my last Russian River brew, a Quad. Pretty solid representation of the style though not where the Trappist breweries are at. Glad to have had the opportunity! Thought i share the sticker shock of a Chevron gas station in Paso Robles. This was a pure 3-gallon (to get us back to Bass Lake) convenience play as i typically seek value when making non-beer purchases. We paid $5.09/gallon in Oakhurst earlier today. I'll be curious to get back to Asheville to see how far gas has risen from the $2.59/gallon i paid back just before the Iran war. Cheers! Tom
2019 DDG Birthday beer Purchased on site and cellared properly since No words. God tier. My absolute favorite Lost Abbey Beer
DMD Cascadian Dark Ale from Fantôme in Belgium. A black IPA/Cascadian ale. 6% ABV. Bottled in 2015. Not great. Notes over in the NBW thread.
Brasserie d'Orval Orval Trappist Ale, bottled November 13th, 2023, best by November 13th, 2028, 6.9% ABV, 32 IBU. I rated this 4.02 in 2016. Looks like the usual 127 fingers of head that leaves huge chunky lacing. Not really a fan of Belgian Pales, but I try not to miss a tasting event if I can get the beer. Last several years I couldn't find an Orval, but recently found this at a small local store notorious for their old beers, and some were from 2019. I was shocked this was so new, actually. And now, it's time to get my mustache yeasty. Hmm tasting better than the two year old Orval I had in 2016.
De Dolle Brouwers - Stille Nacht Pours hazy amber orange with a huge creamy frothy off-white foam head. Smells like dark honey, light caramel, toffee, charred brown sugar, molasses, toasted bready malt, dark dried fruits, some raisin, fig, dates, plum, apricot, apple, pear, lemony orange citrus, exotic sweet spices, peppery clove, mild barnyardy farmhouse funk, wet hay, straw, and floral earthy herbal grassy hops. Tastes really complex and interesting, like bruised apples, pear, overripe banana, apricot, red plum, berry, cherry, raisin, fig, dates, dried fruit, dark amber honey, light caramel, toffee, charred brown sugar, molasses, toasted bready cereal grain malt, hints of roast, lemony orange citrus, lime peel, almost minty cardamom, coriander, slight medicinal clove, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper, wet hay, straw, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. Feels medium-lighter bodied, smooth and slick with creamy moderate carbonation. Overall a really nice Belgian pale strong ale. Belgian beers tend to fascinate me like this one did the first few tastes as I was trying to decipher the flavor in utter amazement at the sheer complexity and uniqueness of strong Belgian ales like this. This one is a winter time Christmas style beer, and the flavor in itself feels like a gift to me. Great balance of flavors, sweet, strong, spice, subtle fruit notes from the yeast, real nice stuff imo.
Great review! This has consistently been one of my favorite Belgian beers over the past decade, and the best from De Dolle. In case anyone is interested, the beer ages beautifully for up to 10 years (IMO).
I've passed it by a few times and grabbed it today just to have something different without even looking into it or seeing if I've had it before. Wasn't expecting a 12% abv Christmas beer either, it was awesome though like most of those Belgian noel beers, amberish from the candy sugar and a nice bitter balance from the hops that all played well with the complex yeast strain together. Would definitely repurchase that any time in the future and drink it. Something about Belgian strong ales, even a quadrupel or tripel I always seem to enjoy.
