The Duck-Rabbit Wee Heavy Scotch Style Ale

Brewed by The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
Style: Scotch Ale
Farmville, North Carolina USA

12 oz. bottle courtesy of a trade with kp. Pours a dark brown into my thistle glass with a thin tan head that lasted through the first sip and left no lace. Very aromatic with lots of peated malt, toffee, and some molasses. The flavor is again earthy peated malt and toffee, but is also accompanied by a sweet flavor that is way over the top. It is not so much sugar sweetness as it is an overripe/rotting fruit kind of sweetness. Some alcohol in the finish. I wanted to love this beer, but the sweetness was too much for me.

Thanks to Niel Yandow for this taster--Poured a rich hardy deep chestnut-brown body with a healthy tan head. Bold toffee-malty-sweet robust nose. Lots of ingredients. Some molasses, smoked peat, caramel and toffee lingered on the tongue. A bit boozy and pronounced in aftertaste. Great quaffing beer. Loved it!

Bottle courtesy of wagenvolks. Poured into a snifter. Dark brown but not opaque. Reddish highlights with light. Modest tan head with little retention or lacing. Aromas of toffee/molasses, peat, and overripe dark fruits. Some perfumey alcohol as well. Sweet flavor profile, with molasses and caramel dominating the front of the palate. This quickly washes into a medicinal finish that’s equal parts licorice, peat, and cough syrup. This beer is surprisingly thin on the palate. Not really enough richness to hold up the flavors. Carbonation is rather high, finish is evaporatively short with an astringent quality. There’s a pleasant warming sensation in the chest as well.

Thanks to Rogueone for sharing a 2007 bottle. This brew is a hazed brownish-amber color with a minimal light beige head that disappears relatively fast. Thin rings of lacing. Peat malt and sweet caramel in the nose. Rich, sweet body with flavors of earthy malt, caramel, toffee and a touch of alcohol smoldering in the background. The finish is sweet caramel malt with a lingering smoked malt aftertaste. Pretty good overall.

Bottle, courtesy Santa. Pours a dark reddish brown, with a big carbonated yellowish tan-colored head, creamy lacing. Mostly caramel in the nose, some roasted chocolate notes, almost like toffee, sweet, somewhat muted though. Dry roasted flavors, cereal, oats, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, sweet. Spicy finish. Interesting take on the style, but very tasty, warming. Nice bite on it.

Firkin at Trappeze, 7/23. This was supposedly the first cask ever from Duck-Rabbit, and it was pretty nice. It poured a clear amber. Aroma was malty, fruity, and sweet. Taste was also fruity, sweet, with a bit of alcohol. Finish was sweet, a little bitter. Mouth was full and sticky. Pretty nice.

Thanks Santa! Huge aroma, loaded with sugary toffee bready malts, and deep persimmon and date fruitiness. Just very bready. Appealing dark red color, purplish tinge, thin layer of fine bubbled head, short lived. Modest lacing. Very heady in the mouth, with alcohol and fruit swirling over the palate and sending wafts of retronasal aromas back up. Finish is burnt sugar, a little grainy on the sides provides some complexity, with a light bitterness to keep it in the realm of balance. Heavy but easy palate. Pretty sweet on the whole.

bottle: pours adirty brown with a thin tan head. aroma is very caramel and toffee a little fresh fruit and very light floral scent. flavours are slightly burnt sugars and sweet almost caramel candy some grains and very small smokieness. an ok scoth ale that can be drank with no problem