Back in the early days of my beer geekdom, one of the styles that really piqued my interest was…read more"saison/farmhouse ale," even before I'd ever tried a single example of that style. I used to read the forums at BeerAdvocate.com and Ratebeer.com a lot more than I do now - and whenever I came across a discussion thread about saisons, an enigmatic beer known simply as Fantome was typically mentioned as one of the more complex, standout examples of the style.
I searched out all the better local liquor stores I knew about, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Fantome...which, in retrospect, was a very futile effort, as back then the Shelton Brothers (Fantome's U.S. distributor) neither distributed to my area, nor planned to. Dejected, I proceeded to cut my farmhouse ale teeth on Saison Dupont, and whatever lesser saisons were available at the time (not that many, as the style wasn't trending yet).
Just a little later in my beery evolution, I found out that I could order beer online from other states, even other countries. Finally, the Fantome was within my reach. I bought a bottle, nervously wrestled the cork out, poured and drank. Truth be told, it wasn't really what I was expecting. It tasted a bit like orange juice that was starting to go bad. I shrugged and chalked it up to beer-tasting experience, then forgot about the Fantome.
The next time I had a bottle of Fantome, it was a revelation. My beer tastes must have matured, because this time it was the perfect balance of tart, funk, dryness, herbal and peppery character. I finally got it. I knew that if I ever visited Belgium, a trip to the Brasserie Fantome would have to be on the itinerary.
A few months ago, I got my chance. Let me first say that the little town of Soy, in which the Fantome resides, isn't all that close to anywhere. It's a couple hours of driving from Brussels, and not hot on any tourist trail I'm aware of.
I should note that normally, the brewery is only open on weekends. We were there on a Friday, having emailed head brewer and owner Dany Prignon beforehand to set up a special "tour." I put that word in quotes, because this is a very small brewery. There's not a lot to tour, basically one room for the old-school brewing apparatus replete with brick mash tun held precariously up in a creaky, musty wooden loft, a room for bottling, a little office space, and a tasting room. This is NOT a highly modernized, efficient brewing operation...experiencing it firsthand, I will never complain about the spotty availability of Fantome bottles ever again.
Dany himself showed us around - while it appears that he gets friends to help him out occasionally, the Fantome is truly a one-man operation. He's a cool guy and an inspirational mad scientist of a brewer with his anything-goes, crazy secret recipes. Oh, and if you ever took any high school or college French, you might want to draw upon that knowledge here, as Dany speaks very little English.
After the brief tour, we were ushered into the tasting room and invited to pour from the taps. The eponymous Fantome saison and the Chocolat were on tap. I'd never been that much of a fan of the bottles of Chocolat I've had in the United States, as I was never able to pick out much chocolate flavor...which admittedly is an odd flavor component for a saison, but hey, this is the Fantome we're talking about, so I wanted it. However, fresh and at the source, this time the chocolate came through loud and clear and meshed surprisingly well with the tart and peppery notes of the base saison....it might as well have been an entirely different beer from what I'd tried before.
Then, Dany opened up bottles for us. Oh, lots of bottles of these strong, tasty 8-10% ABV saisons.....wow, what a day, let's just say that. One of my favorite Fantome bottles has always been the Brise-BonBons!, which is the "hoppy" Fantome. But yet again, clearly, I'd never had a bottle of it quite this fresh before - that was the best "hoppy saison" I'd ever had.
It's off the beaten track, but if you're a beer geek in Belgium, well worth a trip out of the way for such an irreverent, quirky, and ultimately excellent brewery.
