Is Fantome "back"?

[ElkSherpa1]

It appears that this bottle was stored on its side. The cork was quite wet and a decent amount of moisture was present under the cap. I'm not a mold expert but I'll go out on a limb and venture a guess that black mold was growing between the cap and cork.

The cork broke on the first attempt at opening... Like I said before the cork was pretty wet and as a result extremely pliable. The cork screw slipped through the center of the cork and it broke in half. Luckily I was able to get the cork out without going all the way through and much to everyone's surprise the cork busted out with even more vigor than the fresh Fou we opened later! Now for the down and dirty notes:

• The aroma was difficult to get a handle on. Sweet, dank and herbaceous with a subdued funk and a lot of basement/attic/old hotel mixed in.
• The carbonation was perfect. Not perfect for a 23 year old beer, but for any beer. The head retention was surprising and the mouthfeel was creamy and pillowy.
• The taste was sweet, bready, earthy, leathery and followed the aroma with some old newspaper notes. This was accompanied by an underlying brightness and funkiness that closed with a hint of herbs.

These are the best Fantôme experiences! Love that there are still old bottles in circulation.

 

[GregorySingh]

No deets regarding freshness? Was this a shelf pick with no idea of freshness, did you buy it awhile ago or new arrival?

Tonight im popping a fresh off the boat bottle.

I bought this bottle two weeks ago off the shelf in San Diego. It's the first time I had seen a regular Famtome saison on the shelf in over a year. I'm not sure if the store held it back or if it was delivered recently to them.

 

[stakem1]

It appears that this bottle was stored on its side. The cork was quite wet and a decent amount of moisture was present under the cap. I'm not a mold expert but I'll go out on a limb and venture a guess that black mold was growing between the cap and cork.

The cork broke on the first attempt at opening... Like I said before the cork was pretty wet and as a result extremely pliable. The cork screw slipped through the center of the cork and it broke in half. Luckily I was able to get the cork out without going all the way through and much to everyone's surprise the cork busted out with even more vigor than the fresh Fou we opened later! Now for the down and dirty notes:

• The aroma was difficult to get a handle on. Sweet, dank and herbaceous with a subdued funk and a lot of basement/attic/old hotel mixed in.
• The carbonation was perfect. Not perfect for a 23 year old beer, but for any beer. The head retention was surprising and the mouthfeel was creamy and pillowy.
• The taste was sweet, bready, earthy, leathery and followed the aroma with some old newspaper notes. This was accompanied by an underlying brightness and funkiness that closed with a hint of herbs.

All these words and I still cant tell if you liked it or not?

 

[FTowne1]

This is one of, if not the best threads on this website.

 

[stakem1]

This is one of, if not the best threads on this website.

I promise to try and dial it up to an 11 on saturday... errr umm sunday/monday

 

[FTowne1]

I promise to try and dial it up to an 11 on saturday... errr umm sunday/monday

can'twait.gif!

 

[NAD1983]

All these words and I still cant tell if you liked it or not?

Was it my favorite Tome I've ever had? Definitely not. Overall, I liked it but the sweetness was a bit too much and the complexity was lacking.

Was it the best Tome experience I've had? By far.

 

[RyanG1]

It appears that this bottle was stored on its side. The cork was quite wet and a decent amount of moisture was present under the cap. I'm not a mold expert but I'll go out on a limb and venture a guess that black mold was growing between the cap and cork.

The cork broke on the first attempt at opening... Like I said before the cork was pretty wet and as a result extremely pliable. The cork screw slipped through the center of the cork and it broke in half. Luckily I was able to get the cork out without going all the way through and much to everyone's surprise the cork busted out with even more vigor than the fresh Fou we opened later! Now for the down and dirty notes:

• The aroma was difficult to get a handle on. Sweet, dank and herbaceous with a subdued funk and a lot of basement/attic/old hotel mixed in.
• The carbonation was perfect. Not perfect for a 23 year old beer, but for any beer. The head retention was surprising and the mouthfeel was creamy and pillowy.
• The taste was sweet, bready, earthy, leathery and followed the aroma with some old newspaper notes. This was accompanied by an underlying brightness and funkiness that closed with a hint of herbs.

wood bang/10

 

[stakem1]

Seedy and earthy strawberry fruitiness, herbal to almost cantaloupe-like hoppy flavors. Warming alcohol, bready grain and slight dusty earthiness. Prickly carbonation.

Really liking this bottle but it tastes young. Now...to decide how long I want to stretch these out and how frequently to drink them.

 

[FTowne1]

Seedy and earthy strawberry fruitiness, herbal to almost cantaloupe-like hoppy flavors. Warming alcohol, bready grain and slight dusty earthiness. Prickly carbonation.

Really liking this bottle but it tastes young. Now...to decide how long I want to stretch these out and how frequently to drink them.

Any sort of date code on your bottles? The last 4-5 I bought haven't had anything on them.

 

[swivelhips1]

All these carbed up tomes are making me want to open some bottles and see how they are doing.

 

[stakem1]

Any sort of date code on your bottles? The last 4-5 I bought haven't had anything on them.

Negative, none of the US style classic saison labels ive had since 2012 have been marked. I dont think they ever bothered including the notch area with this design.

 

[beeraroundtown1]

Overseas ones all have a small date code on the right side of the label, not sure why that isn't done on the US releases.

 

[swivelhips1]

This. This is very good. Although I do not know if I have the beer vocabulary to describe what I am tasting.

 

[regularjohn]

This. This is very good. Although I do not know if I have the beer vocabulary to describe what I am tasting.

if anyone ever asks what it tastes like just say fantome, taste like fantome. that is always the right answer

 

[LuxWanderer]

Seedy and earthy strawberry fruitiness, herbal to almost cantaloupe-like hoppy flavors. Warming alcohol, bready grain and slight dusty earthiness. Prickly carbonation.

Really liking this bottle but it tastes young. Now...to decide how long I want to stretch these out and how frequently to drink them.

So this is the most recent batch that was released in Europe too. Got the same Strawberry notes in mine. Cheers!

 

[Spanner1]

ISO: Fantome Teku.

What does ISO stand for?

 

[ncaudle]

What does ISO stand for?

the opposite of FT, or more colloquially, Inside stakem Orifice






































srs










notsrs









In Search Of

 

[Josh2]

the opposite of FT, or more colloquially, Inside stakem Orifice






































srs










notsrs









In Search Of

Sadly, in light of the recent rising trade values, it really does mean

Inside















Someone's













Orifice.





You been ******, yo!

 

[Gonzoillini1]

I'm a combination of excited / jealous to see what stakem and Dunt among others open up this weekend up in the NE, and I really hope dunt brought the tome mask from a previous Fantome tasting

 

[drgarage1]

I'm a combination of excited / jealous to see what stakem and Dunt among others open up this weekend up in the NE, and I really hope dunt brought the tome mask from a previous Fantome tasting

It's already getting stupid on Intappd!

 

[Dunt1]

I faded pretty fast last night, a day full of travel took a lot of out of me. Only opened a taster of what we have. Buckle up kiddos. stakem has a crazed look in his eyes.

 

[stakem1]

I faded pretty fast last night, a day full of travel took a lot of out of me. Only opened a taster of what we have. Buckle up kiddos. stakem has a crazed look in his eyes.

 

[FTowne1]

 

[beeraroundtown1]

Crazy tome-a-thon, been following on untapped. Keep it up!

 

[arren]

This was a clovey, funky delight. Not even a hint of tartness, but I didn't mind.

 

[stakem1]

So this particular tome tasting was about 5 years in the making. The intent was to crush the full Sante lineup and then have some fun with other rare bottles.

The graveyard pics (photo credit goes to someone else since I didnt take many pics)

Tome lineup consisted of the Santes and the left to right in bottom pic:
Extra Sour b1
Unlabeled Loch Ness '95
La Destinee '98
Croise de mondes
Blanche de hotton
Flop '00
Grimm
Circus
Fleur de bomal
Babillard Dark
Special Noel '93
Strange Ghost
Cisse Leuze
Babillard

I truely believe we could have done a lot more damage than this if we would have brought more to the table but I honestly didnt think we were gonna finish all of these. The whole sante series can pretty much be summed up in the words of our host for the weekend. "That was ******* unique and awesome."

Nothing was a drainpour despite some crumbly 23 year old corks. The oldest Santes held up pretty well, in my opinion they were not showcasing as much oxidation as many expected. I think everyone participating was expecting to be drinking liquified cardboard with the first 5 but instead we were greeted with wildly different beers with exceptional carbonation and unique character. Sante 3 remained the most bright and lively of the oldest ones. Bottles 5-9 were quite similar but the bitterness was amped up in them. Things got interesting around Sante X as it seemed varying amounts of coriander and oregano were introduced into the flavor profile. 11 and 11 rose lived up and maybe even exceeded expectations. I might go out on a limb and say plain Sante 11 was my favorite of the entire Sante lineup with rose being slightly behind it. Rose was easily the most fruited smelling Fantome ive encountered.

In my opinion, the best Fantome we drank this weekend was the "special noel 93." The flavor had seemingly no indication of its age. It was the equivalent of a barleywine or old ale. Ive said that before about Loch Ness being the tome barleywine but this special noel was twice as rich and boozy as the Nessy. The alcohol warmth integrated perfectly with layers of malty sweetness.

Im glad I got to share this experience with a great group of people. It was amazing to catch up with some folks I havent seen in a number of years and make some new friends. danyP your creations continue to be my favorite experiences in the beer world.

Sorry, that was a lot of words. As I find time ill post some more detailed thoughts on some of the more interesting bottles.

 

[boogercrack]

 

[Iliketurtles]

So this particular tome tasting was about 5 years in the making. The intent was to crush the full Sante lineup and then have some fun with other rare bottles.

The graveyard pics (photo credit goes to someone else since I didnt take many pics)

Tome lineup consisted of the Santes and the left to right in bottom pic:
Extra Sour b1
Unlabeled Loch Ness '95
La Destinee '98
Croise de mondes
Blanche de hotton
Flop '00
Grimm
Circus
Fleur de bomal
Babillard Dark
Special Noel '93
Strange Ghost
Cisse Leuze
Babillard

I truely believe we could have done a lot more damage than this if we would have brought more to the table but I honestly didnt think we were gonna finish all of these. The whole sante series can pretty much be summed up in the words of our host for the weekend. "That was ******* unique and awesome."

Nothing was a drainpour despite some crumbly 23 year old corks. The oldest Santes held up pretty well, in my opinion they were not showcasing as much oxidation as many expected. I think everyone participating was expecting to be drinking liquified cardboard with the first 5 but instead we were greeted with wildly different beers with exceptional carbonation and unique character. Sante 3 remained the most bright and lively of the oldest ones. Bottles 5-9 were quite similar but the bitterness was amped up in them. Things got interesting around Sante X as it seemed varying amounts of coriander and oregano were introduced into the flavor profile. 11 and 11 rose lived up and maybe even exceeded expectations. I might go out on a limb and say plain Sante 11 was my favorite of the entire Sante lineup with rose being slightly behind it. Rose was easily the most fruited smelling Fantome ive encountered.

In my opinion, the best Fantome we drank this weekend was the "special noel 93." The flavor had seemingly no indication of its age. It was the equivalent of a barleywine or old ale. Ive said that before about Loch Ness being the tome barleywine but this special noel was twice as rich and boozy as the Nessy. The alcohol warmth integrated perfectly with layers of malty sweetness.

Im glad I got to share this experience with a great group of people. It was amazing to catch up with some folks I havent seen in a number of years and make some new friends. danyP your creations continue to be my favorite experiences in the beer world.

Sorry, that was a lot of words. As I find time ill post some more detailed thoughts on some of the more interesting bottles.

 

[stakem1]