Rogue Santa's Private Reserve Ale

Brewed By: Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon  

Purchased: 650ml (1 pint, 6oz) bomber bought at Friar Tucks in Urbana, IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Amber Ale/Red Ale, 6.0%

Reported IBUs: 65

Nothing says Christmas like a hoppy Amber Ale! Right!? Actually, if Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale has taught us anything, it's that you can have a piney/hoppy beer that totally works for the winter season. But this is "Santa's Private Reserve." Do you think the fat man reaches for an Amber, or some sort of Quadrupel with candy canes melted in it? Actually, Rogue is hipster-douche-nozzle enough to probably attempt a candy cane Quad. On Rogue (and dasher, and dancer, and sweater beard):

Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of it. The brewery was founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser, and home brewer Jeff Schultz. Due to increasing space and distribution limitations, Jack Joyce went searching in Newport for a location for the new Rogue pub. It was at this time that he met Mohave Niem, founder of Mo's Clam Chowder. She offered Jack space to brew in her building, and in 1989 the Bay Front Brew Pub was built. Rogue's headquarters currently reside in Newport to this day. In May 1989, current head brewmaster, John Maier, joined Rogue after a brief sting brewing with Alask Brewing. John was a former Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co, and a graduate of the Seibel Institute. To learn more about Rogue, check out their website HERE.

The bottle features the fat man himself, holding a mug and raising a fist. "White power! Ho Ho!" He means snow power...and the bottle says "snowflakes glisten." If you check out Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve page, you can get all the important information about this beer, except the ABV. I don't know why Rogue doesn't want me to know how drunk I'm going to get. Sure, they include all that fancy homebrewing shit, like 13 Plato. Speaking of, this beer is brewed with 10 Ingredients (9 according to the website). This beer uses Carastan, Crystal, and proprietary Rogue malts. This also uses Chinook hops, along with some proprietary Rogue hops. This beer is brewed with Rogue's proprietary Pacman Yeast, and "Free Range Coastal Water." This beer has won some awards, and is regarded as being pretty great. So let's put this in a glass and stuff it down my chimney. Ho ho ho!

Santa's Private Reserve Ale

This beer fucking hates me! Karma is evil! I talk a little crap about how Rogue are the hipsters of brewing, and I get a gusher. I popped the cap off and this beer gushed everywhere. The elusive, 6.0%, American Amber Ale gusher....fuck! I guess this is bottle conditioned. The beer pours a lovely dark red/orange/amber color, with two fingers of caramel/red-tinted head. When held to bright light, the beer is a hazy, orange-amber color, and about a finger's worth of caramel head is hanging around. There is some lacing, and a reasonable amount of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles. This beer is hazy, yeasty, and liable to gush. 

The aroma on this beer is really nice. You get sweet caramel, and nice pine and grass hop notes. You get a hint of candy-citrus-sweetness, and there's some bread in the mix. There's some nice hop spice, which almost lends to a Cinnabun/cinnamon/French Toast thing. It's a brilliant marriage of winter-hops with nice malt sweetness.

Interestingly enough, I'm reminded of an ESB/Bitter type beer. This has "harsh" or hard bitterness that isn't overly bitter...but has a big impact. I get bread crust, caramel, toffee, pine/grass, floral, pale ale hoppy-ness, pretty prominent soapiness, and a hint of earthy hop spice. This is fairly attenuated, I think, which lends to a dry and thin-feeling finish.

There's a slight disconnect between the aroma and the taste. For 6.0%, this drinks pretty easily. There is noticeable bitterness, but it's a "hard," Pale Ale-bitterness. The beer finishes dry, and has a slight "thinness." Thus, I'm inclined to call this medium-light, with just okay palate depth, and low complexity. Up front is some bread, biscuit, and burgeoning pine; the middle rolls into biscuit, grass, pine; the back end is dry, soapy, earthy, hint of spice in the mix; finish is dry, lingering, soapy hops.

Rating: Average 

I'm feeling a Light Average on this. I'm not going to lie, this is disappointing for two reasons. One: if you put Santa on your bottle of beer, it better remind me of Christmas, and not an English Pale Ale. Two: the taste is a bit disconnected from the aroma. Having said that, this is a solid "Amber Ale / Red Ale." It's not bad, and there are hints of pine/spruce, spice, and even some french toast. It's alright. Food pairings: duck, beef roast, a burger, anything you'd pair with a Pale Ale. If you do pick this beer up, grab a 6-pack instead of the bomber. It works better in that format, in my opinion.

Random Thought: If you put Santa on the bottle, you come to play hard. The glass is fucking awesome, however. And while I love busting Rogue's balls, I actually enjoy a lot of what they brew. They are a good brewer, and their Mocha Porter is FANTASTIC.