The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery- Amber Ale: First Impression Is A Lasting One
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 5:50PM | by Jason 
As previously mentioned, I am a man on a mission. I have to get this fridge cleared and I have only about 7-10 days to do so. As I sift through trying to determine which one to go with next, I come across a brew that I had picked up when I was in North Caroline mid-August. This brewery is very well known for their milk stout but that is not the one I chose to go with, I decided to go red. Despite the odd name, I am actually excited to try Amber Ale from The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. This is a brewery that is located in Farmville, NC and if you look close, the logo is both a duck and a rabbit. To be honest, I’m not feeling the simplistic label, packaging and logo design. I’m just hoping that the brew is better than what it is packaged in. Here goes…
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery classifies this brew as an Amber Ale and their website describes Amber Ale as, “The Duck-Rabbit Amber Ale is a medium bodied beer with a lovely tawny copper or bronze color. This brew emphasizes malt complexity with layered caramel malt flavors. We put a lot of effort into getting this amber ale just right and we're extremely proud of the result!”
Amber Ale pours a deep copper color with a 2” tan head that lingers. The aroma is rather lackluster, mild toasty and slight caramel scents is about all I can detect.
This first thing I notice is that this beer is very carbonated much more so than your average amber/red ale. Duck-Rabbit Amber Ale is simply boring and lifeless. The flavor is simplistic and from what I can detect, there are no redeeming qualities to this brew at all. I’m usually not one for completely bashing a beer but this one really is just awful. I’m a big fan of red ales and when it comes to what a great example of the style is you look to a New Belgium Fat Time, Lagunitas Lucky 13 or Green Flash Hop Head Red. I guess that the brew inside is as bad as the packaging, label and so forth. You can take a pass on this one, there are much better selections of red ales out there.
ABV: 5.5%
Consumed: New Belgium Globe Glass
Verdict: Skip It
