Valéry discovered Brasserie Fantôme in Brazil because it has somewhat of a cult following there – as it does in the UK and in Scandinavia – evidenced by ravenous import markets and fanatical praise from reviewers in those countries on online rating sites.
Despite this cult status internationally however, Fantôme is relatively unknown in Belgium, regarded by beer geeks as a curiosity and by locals who have heard of it as an oddity. Maybe that’s down to Fantôme exporting more than 90% of what it produces to other countries. It’s extremely difficult to find bottles here in Belgium. What foreign beer lovers see as eccentric practices and mystery yeast, Belgians see as at best, whimsical and at worst, wildly inconsistent. If Valéry had stayed in Belgium and never gone to Brazil, he might never have discovered Fantôme.