The Duck-Rabbit Rabid Duck Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Farmville, North Carolina USA

Bottle courtesy of OldGrowth. Abyss black. Tan brown head. Aroma is molasses, vanilla, some chocolate and a veggie-type note. Maybe some alcohol as well (gin, perhaps?). Taste is chocolaty, vegetal, roasty and dark fruits. Some soy or Worcestershire sauce too. Body is thinner than expected and mildly carbonated. Finishes with more roasted malts, coffee, veggie notes and soy/Worcestershire sauce. Different take on an IS.

Thanks be to OldGrowth. Very deep sanguine black body with a ruddy tan head. Aroma suggests chocolate-covered caramel, vanilla, and sweet, rummy alcohol. Flavor has a subtle raspberry quality and develops some nice port wine characters as it warms. Like a sweet charred marinade with burnt raisin notes. Finishes with an aggressive blend of hop and roast bitterness. Great underlying aspects--this might benefit from scaling down the bitterness. A hell of a nice sipper, regardless.

Bottle. Strong aroma, deep roast, chocolate, and malt. Notes of blueberry definitely shining through! A sweet touch of alcohol. Pitch pour with a gorgeous, cream, medium-dark brown head. Extremely robust flavor, huge sweet-n-sour roast with blueberries, chocolate, slight toffee, brown sugar, sticky malt. Body medium-full and warming. Alcoholic. Acidity doesn’t seem to fit here. Yes, definite mismatch of flavors. Bitter, very dry, and slightly burned aftertaste. Coffee and a bit of booziness linger as well. Not really top-notch for style, but still pretty good. Thanks, Jason! [3.5]

Same batch, about 8 months later. A little rubbing alcohol in the nose, but also a big bit of chewy cigar. Malt seems a bit thicker. Booziness is again the knock, and the flavors are just all over the place. Hard to console myself, the disappointment is just too great, especially with HOTD’s Adam and several beastly European stouts in recent memory. [3.3]

5/19/07. First beer, second round, in a 5 round, top-rated imperial stout blind tasting to be held over the next year. Four beers with similar characteristics will be sampled in each round. Beers in this round were cellared for about a year and a half. Round 2 - Medium Body. 12 oz bottle. Dark woody brown. Minimal, dark tan head. Thinnest looking of the four. Nose is black coffee, molasses and some dusty brown sugar. Medium body with a sweet, grapey tang. Bittersweet chocolate and coffee foremost. Muted hops add some bitterness.

Hard not to get swept up in the hype associated with this brewery, but I’d have to completely agree with the average scores on this one. Decent looking head, but lacing is a bit weak. Hmm, the viscosity is not where I thought it’d be. A tad on the thin side. The typical roasted malts that impart a modest amount of chocolate, coffee and plummy character. Tad on the sweet side and more than I would’ve liked. Overall, decent, but quite average and expecting more from a brewery that initially came onto the scene so strong.

12-oz. Thanks, GoldTwins! Pours a deep, genuine opaque black with a thick, moussy, rocky dark tan/orangey head. Huge chocolate and roast on the nose. Medium body, light carb, but huge flavors--bold attack. Thick swirls of chocolate and roast and dark fruit into a lingering, lightly bitter finish. I can’t say there’s any one thing about this that stands out but it’s delicious, hides the booze well, and is well made in every way. Great stuff.

Trade from Ross, thanks man! Pours a black color with big brownish head that fades quickly. Aroma is intense sweet and roasted malts with some notes of dark fruit and a bit of alcohol. Taste is of roasted malt, subtle dark fruits, light chocolate and some coffee flavors mix into the fray in the finish. The mouthfeel is actually a bit watery upon my first taste but in the swallow it becomes apparent that I was definitely wrong. The alcohol is very well concealed. As one other rate put it, this a simple imperial stout. They don’t try any fancy schmancy stuff, they brewed a simple yet fantastic impy stout.

Black body with a small tan head with low retention. Roasted malts and more roasted malts. Very little in terms of chocolate, coffee beans or fruit flavours. Finish leaves an after-taste of roasted wood. Alcohol very well concealed. Simple and effective. Not very original but who cares… originality is not always a good thing, sometimes original just means weird. I’m original.