At Pub 27 in Pompeii
Fantôme DMV Cascadian Dark Ale, Soy, Belgium from Half Time, Poughkeepsie
Date: November 21, 2018
The Story— Danny Prignon started the Fantôme brewery in 1988 with his recently retired father. The brewery was at first intended to be something larger than the true farmhouse breweries such as his family ran decades ago just to provide beer for the house, but still simple and limited. I think if you had told him in 1988 his beer would be sold in the United States thirty years later, he might still be laughing.
Danny made his reputation on his saison, but he’s branched out over they years — as much to have fun as to make money. We found this gem at Half Time in Poughkeepsie. Half Time is one of a trio of stores that keeps us well oiled year round– it’s a must visit if you’re anywhere close to the Hudson valley. This was probably the best bargain of the year for us – at a sale price of $5, it would have been a very good deal at twice that or the usual price for a beer of this caliber– mid double digits. It may have been sitting around for a while, but while the hops of a Cascadian (aka Black IPA) fade with time, if it has a good malt underpinning, it settles into a different, but delicious, darkness. This one still had plenty enough hop strength left, though, to pile on bitter at the end.
The Beer— The dark malt is huskier than it is sweet and the dark herbal bitter piles on. A bit of dark chocolate adds interest later. I’m not sure I’d want a second 75 cl. bottle, though maybe with a good Belgian stew a second bottle would be exactly the ticket. It’s a really interesting take on the style in any case.
Value — Excellent. If I were panhandling, I could live on just this beer for days at a time.
This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States. We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect. Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.
Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night. Look for it in 2019.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.
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