Fantôme?

[mrk_d]

As I start to build up a small cellar of stuff to age long-term, I've gotten rid of everything other than geuze and a couple fruit lambics. However, I know that people drink some pretty old Fantôme and I'm curious to hear input on whether it's "worth it" to stash some bottles for the long haul.

Is there a normal trajectory these take, or is it pretty much a crapshoot? Assuming you start off with a decent bottle of regular Saison or something like that, will they get more funky/acidic over time, or mostly develop via oxidation? I don't hear people comparing notes on, for example, 1 vs. 3 vs. 5 year old tomes very often but I'm curious how these tend to develop. I'm sure with 20 year old bottles it's a total crapshoot, but are the good old bottles enjoyable/interesting or essentially always worse than fresh?

 

[lb304854]

As far as the regular stuff, Pissenlit '03 and Saison '04 were a revelation.

As with all Fantome, YMMV.

 

[Snarf1]

As I start to build up a small cellar of stuff to age long-term, I've gotten rid of everything other than geuze and a couple fruit lambics. However, I know that people drink some pretty old Fantôme and I'm curious to hear input on whether it's "worth it" to stash some bottles for the long haul.

Is there a normal trajectory these take, or is it pretty much a crapshoot? Assuming you start off with a decent bottle of regular Saison or something like that, will they get more funky/acidic over time, or mostly develop via oxidation? I don't hear people comparing notes on, for example, 1 vs. 3 vs. 5 year old tomes very often but I'm curious how these tend to develop. I'm sure with 20 year old bottles it's a total crapshoot, but are the good old bottles enjoyable/interesting or essentially always worse than fresh?

Yes?!???!

 

[Stubs]

Thanks for posting
Ive been wondering if shelf fantome is worth stashing away.

 

[stakem1]

The variation ive witnessed in Fantome bottles is unparalleled. So much batch variation that there is even crazy bottle to bottle variation from the same batch. You can honestly cellar cases of Fantome and intermittently pull 2 bottles and there is no certainty that being from the same batch, aged long side one another will even taste/age the same.

From my experience, ive not had many....or well any actually that got acedic with time. The bottles that are 10+ years old are all a gamble with oxidation and are usually more lactic and funky. Anything currently between 10 and 3 years old is probably right in that sweet spot pre tire fire bandaid era.



Why did I even post this? Dont buy Fantome unless you plan to send it to me.

 

[Snarf1]

The variation ive witnessed in Fantome bottles is unparalleled. So much batch variation that there is even crazy bottle to bottle variation from the same batch. You can honestly cellar cases of Fantome and intermittently pull 2 bottles and there is no certainty that being from the same batch, aged long side one another will even taste/age the same.

From my experience, ive not had many....or well any actually that got acedic with time. The bottles that are 10+ years old are all a gamble with oxidation and are usually more lactic and funky. Anything currently between 10 and 3 years old is probably right in that sweet spot pre tire fire bandaid era.



Why did I even post this? Dont buy Fantome unless you plan to send it to me.

Keep buying Fantome. It's the most interesting Belgian shelf beer to age.

 

[sacrelicio]

As far as the regular stuff, Pissenlit '03 and Saison '04 were a revelation.

As with all Fantome, YMMV.

Them danyP likes

 

[Lurkaholic]

Them danyP likes

Achievement unlocked

 

[sacrelicio]

Achievement unlocked

someday...

 

[furley]

a few years back (6? 7?) i had an appx. 6-7 year old Fantome saison.. just the regular bottle. it was... perfection. bright, fruity, strawberry. impossibly tasty.

the others i had from the same appx. time period (drank within the next couple months) were similarly fruity but not as intensely fresh tasting. still great but not orgasmic.

 

[stakem1]

a few years back (6? 7?) i had an appx. 6-7 year old Fantome saison.. just the regular bottle. it was... perfection. bright, fruity, strawberry. impossibly tasty.

the others i had from the same appx. time period (drank within the next couple months) were similarly fruity but not as intensely fresh tasting. still great but not orgasmic.

once you taste a strawberry/pineapple bottle of Fantome...you never go back to enjoying any other beer the same way ever again. i can honestly say without hesitation or regret that drinking one of those bottles was a pivotal point in my beer drinking life

sometime ago I cracked into a case of classic label fantome which were bottles i picked up at varying times/places on shelves. everytime i saw a bottle, i got it and stashed it away in the case with the others

when i opened the case a couple years ago to stack the bottles on a shelf, i noticed there were quite a few subtle differences to the labels. font size and even the color of the text...i distinctly remember 1 of the 12 had the word "surlie" in red. anyway, upon closer look you could even tell the contents of the bottles were different shades (from light straw colored to darker orange/red hued.) from that case, i still have 2-3 bottles and holding them to the light you can see how different they are. i have a strong feeling that the bottle with the darker reddish tinted contents is one of the fabled "strawberry juice" bottles. i frequently think about popping it...but if its not what i think it is, i will be crushed that its not life alteringly good. but if it is one of them bottles, ill be equally devistated that it is gone, never to be had again

 

[furley]

once you taste a strawberry/pineapple bottle of Fantome...you never go back to enjoying any other beer the same way ever again. i can honestly say without hesitation or regret that drinking one of those bottles was a pivotal point in my beer drinking life

mine goes back to a trip to Brussels in '99. my favorite beer prior to that trip was probably New Glarus Edel Pils or maybe Moosehead. then i sat down at a bar and had a Fantome on tap.

mind = blown

no clue which Fantome it was.. probably just the straight saison.. i remember being stunned by how good it tasted. thankfully it washed away the flavor of the Eku28 i'd choked down right before that. we ducked out after quickly drinking that last beer , then on to the next place where i had a Palm and something else before heading "home" to crash.

three things stuck with me

1) this is what beer can taste like??
2) that (what i came to know as a) tulip glass was incredibly cool
3) i need ALL the Fantomes

needless to say i didn't realize it was near impossible to get even then in Belgium... much less in the US. so i made it my mission to find the beer and tulips. took a lot of legwork to land the ones i did amass early on. thankfully they aren't AS hard to find now.

 

[isaac11]

A fella during a share the other week brought this '93 to a tasting. Was quite interesting... I don't really have much info on what it is or what it was..

 

[stakem1]

I don't really have much info on what it is or what it was..

?? looks like a '93 Ete to me

 

[isaac11]

?? looks like a '93 Ete to me

Yes it appears it is/was. What was interesting was after opening the beer, the cap smelled exactly caramels. The beer itself tasted fine was drinkable and was quite unique.. But the nose.. It made me feel like I was in a wet basement, also described by others. Not sure if the cap/area between cap and cork was like a flash back into the past lifetime of the beer but it was pretty cool. (likewise the area between the cork and the beer itself, given the condition of the cork) Got to try a beer almost as old as myself and my first Fantome.