Duck- Rabbit Brewery

Most craft breweries have their beers distributed, some further than others. Were it not for this how would any brewery ultimately survive. Not to mention how could we indulge in such heavenly goodness that’s just too far away?

          Having said that, why not begin with the best. My favorite example of this is the Duck-Rabbit brewery in Farmville, NC. They are my most respected brewery for one reason;  they tote themselves as “The Dark Beer Specialists” and it’s one to which they hold true . They make four dark beers: an amber ale, a dark brown ale, a milk Stout (5 stars!!!!! My all-time North Carolina stout beer FAVORITE.) and a porter.
             I encountered the Duck Rabbit Milk stout very early in my career as a stout beer connoisseur , at a place called the Hickory Tavern (this one was actually IN Hickory, NC but I have since learned they’re all over the eastern end of the state).  To this day my palate has found no replacement for this particular beer and here’s why. It is everything I want a stout to be: it is bold, as all stouts should be, but with a touch of sweetness (something to be expected with any milk stout) but not cloyingly so; heavy enough to provide a creamy, smooth texture but not so much  that you couldn’t consume 6 without feeling bloated if you felt like it;  a reasonable alcohol content that provides more kick than other beer genres but, unlike many imperial stouts, or whiskey-barrel-aged stouts and porters that scream “”ALCOHOL!” above beyond the flavors of the beer itself.  The Duck Rabbit Milk Stout carries my highest recommendation and not only for stout lovers. Because I find it frequently among restaurants in NC, it is most often the beer in my hand and when I find it there I feel a devout dedication to enlighten those around me who have yet to experience its yumminess. As a result, I can proudly say I’ve converted more than a couple New Castle and other such consumers. Although it doesn’t have any specific flavor component that sends your  mind and taste buds searching  there is a richness of flavor and smoothness in this beer that is beyond reproach and is absolutely unique. While many stouts go overboard on a particular flavor (coffee, breakfast, etc), alcohol content, sweetness or thickness (while just as many seem to aim in the opposite direction in search of a blandness 2^nd only to the Guinness) Duck Rabbit has found the way to combine just the right amount of all the good stuff. Complete satisfaction. My fridge is never without it.

Something else Duck Rabbit has accomplished in their art of dark beer creation is to market a truly adorable log. (Look, I’m a woman; I’m allowed to use the word “adorable” and “beer” in the same context.) Once you’ve seen their crude, child-like, flat, black mascot- something no doubt meant to be a cross between a duck and a rabbit- you’ll never fail to recognize it every time you see it thereafter. I like to pretend it came into being after the brew master had had one too many of his own beverages, and that upon further realization of its unique look decided to keep it. However it came to be, the simplicity is timeless and perfectly fitted to a beer that it is both simplistic yet timeless and unique.

http://www.duckrabbitbrewery.com/