Opening the capped and corked bottle (the usual Fantôme presentation) fails to produce much pop or gun smoke which is a slight worry. However, a decently aggressive pour leads to a nice, 1 inch rocky white head, with some decent retention and lace. It settles to a thin film across the surface. Lightly hazed orange body.

Nose has some clean grains, and some generic citrus. Controlled and steady.

General bitterness throughout the beer, but again it’s restrained. Some Fantôme beers exhibit a lot more bitterness than this. Some really light grapefruit, and something like lemon pith too. There isn’t a lot of funk here. It’s more like an English IPA that has been over-hopped than a typical Fantôme (if there is such a thing). Maybe a few tannins in the back end as well, a little tea and quite earthy. The bitterness is consistent, but also evens out of the course of the 750 mL, and as the beer warms. It also gets a bit fruitier. I just don’t get any Brett that I see some others have reported. I get zero.

Gentle in the mouth with plenty of carbonation, that at first was a concern. No need, it’s absolutely fine.

By Fantôme standards this actually a very simple beer – very nice – but fairly simple. Lovely, gentle malts as they meld beautifully with the bitterness to give a balanced beer. No silliness here, just a solid beer. Good, simple cracker melts control the bitterness which was so apparent upfront. I don’t get any significant funk or Brett on this bottle.

Very nice, balanced, and quite sensible for Fantôme. Don’t look for a crazy beer here, or even a typical Fantôme funky, yeasty experience, it’s not in this bottle, but you’ll likely still like it.