• Matthew Lunger
• On September 10, 2013

8.00% ABV

Deep in the French-speaking Walloon region of Belgium is the village of Soy, which is home to a small brewery. The brewery itself has no bells and whistles, it is not state of the art, it is practical brewing at its finest. This would be no different than any other small brewhouse in Europe except for the eccentric and exquisite nature of the owner/head brewer/mad scientist of Brasserie Fantome, Dany Prignon. The use of natural, local, and unusual ingredients, like dandelions and mustard seed, and gives this brewer of traditional Farmhouse-style ales a unique flair. The name of the brewery stems from a local legend that the ghost of a long-dead Countess haunts the ruins of the village’s medieval castle.

The original farmhouse saisons were brewed for farm workers in Walloon to drink during the hot summer months. They were clean, crisp, and sat at about 3% – 3.5% ABV for easy quaffing while working outside and a shortage of potable water made the beer an alternative illness and dehydration. These seasonal workers, the saissoniers, would be entitled to up to five liters a day. The brewing of beer also provided work for the farms permanent staff during the slow winter months. Most commercial versions today are higher in gravity, ranging between 5% – 8% ABV.

Pissenlit is a classic Fantome farmhouse saison brewed with dandelions.  Sitting at about top of the style at 8% ABV, the beer is typically released in Summer during the height of the dandelion bloom. The dandelion root was used historically in France for it’s diuretic effect. This explains the English translation of Pissenlit as “piss-a-bed”.  The beer is brewed with dandelions picked from the fields outside Soy and thrown into the brew kettle as Dany seems fit. This very unscientific method can create huge variations from batch to batch and make every bottle of Fantome something that is one of a kind.

Fantome is distributed nationwide in the United States by Shelton Brothers and can be found occasionally in the Denver metro area at specialty beer stores. This bottle was found at Mile High Wine and Spirits in Belmar and Small Batch Liquors in the Upper Highlands.