Fantôme

Kraftster said:
I wish I could've found out. I tried twice to spark conversation with the bartender about Fantome and was shut down both times. Maybe for him Fantome is just that stuff that is painfully deep in the cellar he has to go retrieve (he was gone for about 7 minutes retrieving the bottle).
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Sounds like he may have painful memories of opening those bottles.
 
A3C3EA8D-5119-4959-A466-72311B6E339F.jpegNew ‘tome for me.
This one is interesting. It’s bitter and herbaceous but has a ton of sweetness too. It also comes off a lot boozier than the advertised 7.5%. Must be from the sweetness. Almost tastes like there’s Belgian candied sugar. Major tripel vibes.
 
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I havent contributed to this thread in awhile and for that I apologize.

Mid 90’s ghost - the “sunflower”

Fucking amazing and everything I love about old Fantome. There was liquid between the cork and cap which sometimes spells disaster for getting a cork out in full.

Perfectly carbonated and exquisite with that house tome character of unique brett strain bringing the layers of earthen complexity like nothing else in the beer world. Strong cherry cordial/liquor taste left lingering along with a touch of twangy tart apple finish. Absolutely magnificent.
 
OceanOfMead said:
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I feel like I was told this wasn’t good when it came out so the expectations bar was real low. I was pleasantly surprised to get grapefruit juice with dark malt undertones with this bottle. It’s real pleasant.
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You may have been told “open it in your shower” cuz they always exploded and created ghosty stalactites on your ceiling. What remained in the bottle was always pretty good.
 
Oh my god I wasn’t expecting this… I don’t know the age of this bottle of Saison, but it’s definitely not one of my older ones. But, the last time I had a bottle from this lot it had a strong bitter note, and this time it definitely has almost no bitterness but does have the strawberry note. (This was stored at SoCal room temperature until yesterday when I put it in the fridge – so mostly rather warm.)

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Sage said:
Oh my god I wasn’t expecting this… I don’t know the age of this bottle of Saison, but it’s definitely not one of my older ones. But, the last time I had a bottle from this lot it had a strong bitter note, and this time it definitely has almost no bitterness but does have the strawberry note. (This was stored at SoCal room temperature until yesterday when I put it in the fridge – so mostly rather warm.)

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When the ghost gives, the ghost gives
 
Sage said:
Oh my god I wasn’t expecting this… I don’t know the age of this bottle of Saison, but it’s definitely not one of my older ones. But, the last time I had a bottle from this lot it had a strong bitter note, and this time it definitely has almost no bitterness but does have the strawberry note. (This was stored at SoCal room temperature until yesterday when I put it in the fridge – so mostly rather warm.)

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If you want any clue on the age of the bottle, you need to look at the label - not the phone number on the cork.
 
Stakem said:
If you want any clue on the age of the bottle, you need to look at the label - not the phone number on the cork.
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😅 So I knew the cork might be useless, but I was hoping the terrible tiny lot # might mean something, because this is a Shelton relabel – there’s no “best by” anywhere on this label.

skrip said:
and the cap, if it has the ghost one it, its newer
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Yeah, it’s a ghost cap, and I definitely bought it within the past few years (which is why I was so shocked it already turned the strawberry corner).
 
Anyone here try any of those stouts from the DWRF (Dude Who Ruined Fantome)?

I see some activity in the Knowers group on Facebook, but want to know what any true knowers here think. I don’t recognize any of those clowns

I don’t plan on purchasing any or even taking a minute to see how I would. Just morbidly curious.

This post is a little mean, I’ll probably delete it….
 
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mooselang said:
Anyone here try any of those stouts from the DWRF (Dude Who Ruined Fantome)?

I see some activity in the Knowers group on Facebook, but want to know what any true knowers here think. I don’t recognize any of those clowns

I don’t plan on purchasing any or even taking a minute to see how I would. Just morbidly curious.

This post is a little mean, I’ll probably delete it….
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Can you give some background? Not on FB or deep into the beer internet nooks and crannies, but I’ve been a Tome true believer from before the tire fire era.
 
mooselang said:
Anyone here try any of those stouts from the DWRF (Dude Who Ruined Fantome)?

I see some activity in the Knowers group on Facebook, but want to know what any true knowers here think. I don’t recognize any of those clowns

I don’t plan on purchasing any or even taking a minute to see how I would. Just morbidly curious.

This post is a little mean, I’ll probably delete it….
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No but I trust Dunt’s opinion if you are looking for someone in the FB group who is drinking them to ask.
 
Stakem said:
A few of us have tried to tactfully question him and Mike as to why things are so different. Communication with Dany is tricky but Mike’s communication is excellent.

I firmly believe things have changed drastically since they replaced brewing equipment and did a “deep cleaning” of the brewery. Whatever the new system is, I think it is either more efficient at utilizing hops or isnt as efficient at malt extraction which is whats making it seem like they are adding a ton more bittering hops then ever before. Additionally, the yeast strain they have been favoring lately is really drying out the beer leaving nothing behind but yeast derived phenolics and the hop bitterness. In years past, Fantomes never tasted like the typical “belgian yeast” profile and now seemingly all of them do. The Fantome “house character” of brett/other wild critters is absent save for 1 or 2 offerings out of dozens of batches.

I dont want to point fingers and blame Mike but it seems the beers that he has “taken the wheel on and brewed” have been atypical of anything Dany has released in 30 years. (Single hopped, dry hopped, cherry porter, gruit and now a friggen imperial stout - all within a year or 2.)

Almost a decade ago, I told Dany that some batches of surlie, Ete, Sante 15, Blanche (at that time as all versions since have been mutated) and Sante 3 were amongst my favorite beers I have ever drank. They all were so light, refreshing and tart that it was almost as if he did a Fantasmic version of a berliner weisse. He told me Fantome would never brew a berliner weisse, Fantome is saison.

My how things have changed.
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b.singh I think this is a good place to start. Click back to this and read going forward.

Basically I think a combination of new brewing equipment and a brewing assistant who (seemingly) had WAY too much input caused the drastic drop in Tome Quality.

I stuck with Tomes through the Tire Fire era, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to this. I haven’t ordered a Tome from Etre in a couple years. I used to have trouble not just filling a quarterly Tome box.
 
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