Santa's Private Reserve (2022)
Rogue Ales

 

 

Dark brown in color with a fingernail of brown on top. The aroma is of tangerine, tahini, and earthy spice. I'm tasting tahini, earthy spices, and tangerine. The mouth is busy and warms with all of the spices.

 

Poured from the can into a nonic(k) pint glass. Vintage 2022.

Creamed up and billowing rich and tall four fingers of height head. Very fine and nearly nitrous bubbles with a light tan color and milkshake like appearance. Body color is a dark mahogany with an excellent amount of deep red that's just noticeable enough to squeak out. Great looking stout.

The aroma is really nice and delicate. Light touches of box like milk chocolate with a sense of vanilla whipped up cream. Real nice touch of hinting orange but it's slightly faint. This is an excellent showcase of flavors that isn't over powering either just nicely complimentary and balanced, without so far coming off gimmicky.

Palate is really delicious. Velvety and cake like mouthfeel, with rich malt touches of carbon and faint char. Mid palate rushes with a nice bitter chocolate that is lighter in flavor, but has all the halmarks of dark bitterness but milky sugar. A real nice wonderful orange sweetness mixing in vanilla, even almost a maraschino like cherry note somewhere as well. Silky, rich, just a hint of right sweetness, and a finish of charring bitterness makes for a great run.

Excellent tasting stout, probably one of the most delicious beers I have had from Rogue in a real long time.

 

 

 

 

I was hesitant to try this. So much so that a pint can sat in my fridge for 2 months before I cracked it open. Now I wish I'd bought more! Read on:

Poured this into a stout glass, and was greeted by a cola brown brew with 3 fingers of head and beautiful, sticky lacking. Off to a great start!

The smell is out of this world. If I close my eyes, I could swear I'm smelling one of those milk chocolate candies filled with orange ganache. Milk chocolate, bright citrus, sugar. It smells like a Christmas treat, and major bonus points for not smelling like baking spices to do it! Best smelling holiday beer of the year right here.

The smell is great, but you need to make sure this is at cellar temperature to really enjoy the taste. The orange plays second fiddle when this brew is colder, but really comes through on the palate as it warms up. It's exactly like I bit into a high quality piece of chocolate filled with orange ganache. Or - as another reviewer said - Terry's Orange Ball. It's sweet on the tongue without being overwhelming, but has a slightly dry finish to help balance things out. Simply put: wonderful.

As others have said, the mouthfeel is the greatest area for improvement, and even then, it's still very good. This is thinner than I'd like or expect given the flavors and color, but it still falls into the lower-medium range. Very good, but could be great.

Overall: Hot damn - this is a Christmas miracle. A holiday beer that doesn't use baking spices, 10 lbs of ginger, or hazelnuts! While I'm a huge fan of Chirstmas/holiday brews, I really appreciate the breweries that will make a truly unique beer, rather than something that tries to be the best of a certain category (can anyone say 12 Dogs vs Great Lakes vs 5 other guys?). I really hope to see this again next year so I can buy more.

Very enjoyable. I usually miss the chocolate notes others pick up. I definitely taste them with this one, along with the orange it is quite tasty at the holidays ( and afterwards).

This may be the best dark beer I've ever tasted. It's much like a Terry's chocolate orange ball - sweet, orangey, and delicious. My go-tos for dark beers are Obsidian, Sam Smith's organic chocolate, and Old Rasputin. Santa's Private Reserve stands up to them nicely and adds some variety with the tahini and orange flavors....

Pours black with a medium tan head that dissipates quickly. Smell is very nice- chocolate mainly, caramel, some spice underneath. Taste is chocolate again but not as dominant as you might expect from the nose. Roasted malt with a little pleasant bitterness in the finish combining nicely with the chocolate note. Raisins. Much more balanced and subtle than I was expecting. Medium to full bodied and fairly drinkable.

 

Poured from a pint can into a large glass mug.

Appearance: Very dark brown — approaching black — with a tan head so huge it required the beer to be poured in three stages; the head lingered long, thought left only slight lacing.

Nose: Sweet candy, chocolate, a bit of alcohol.

Mouthfeel: Thinner than I expected.

Attack: Closely follows the nose, not near as much roast as I would have expected in a stout.

Finish: Mild hops.

This is quite drinkable, but in expecting a stout, I was pretty disappointed. The mouthfeel and flavor strength are more what I would expect from a European Dark Lager or Munich Dunkel — both styles I enjoy, and will expect from the other three beers in this four-pack.

In preparing to post this review, I’m surprised at the range of reviews. I realize my review is in the lower part of that range. I’m wondering if there’s perhaps an inconsistency between the various four-packs of this that have been distributed nationally. I've tried to faithfully rate it as compared to other stouts.

 

Well, hotdog… It’s actually good. Not to dog (damn, two dogs in the first line?) on Rogue, but I think we all know where they lie nowadays - a chip that didn’t go in the hole. Either way, this Santa is actually cool. He’s not a mall Santa that smells of peppermint schnapps and chicken tenders. Hey, Raul likes this… It may not be a seven ten split, but it’s like scoring on a Jr. High date by the bathrooms after getting a spare.

one of the best beers of the holiday season - sweet honey malt taste light citrus after taste if you buy 1 - buy more to share

 

L - Black with mahogany highlights and a tan head that dissipates somewhat quickly leaving little lacing
S - Rich milk chocolate with bright citrus along with dark malt
T - milk chocolate intermixed with dark malt followed by bright tangerine. Slightly nutty with a touch of honey
F - medium bodied with light carbonation. Slightly watery
O - a pretty solid holiday stout with a nice citrus touch