Coffee Porter
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery

Served from a cask at ChurchKey in Washington, D.C.(11/07/09). Served in a 16oz. nonic pint glass at a desired temperature.

A: Pours a dark brown with one finger of a foamy and fluffy coffee colored head that left a little bit lacing on the inside of the glass.

S: A very nice roasted coffee aroma that was seemingly one-dimensional with perhaps a slight hint of toffee as it warms.

T: Roasted coffee continues and dominates the palate with a subtle yet rich flavor which contains traces of cocoa and toffee. A slight English(?) hop balances out the flavor with a hint of bitterness.

M: A velvety-smooth body with little carbonation.

D: Extremely drinkable as the flavors work very well together along with the modest 5.7% abv.

Overall I really enjoyed this beer and certainly look forward to trying other brews from Duck-Rabbit. Recommended.

a: deep chestnut brown in color, clear, with some low amount of light making it through, thick tan head that retains well and leaves lots of lace on the glass

s: good mix of very soft roast, woody cocoa powder, and cold-pressed light roast coffee, some dark toffee sugars

m: velvety smooth, light-medium body, carbonation is extremely low

t: follows the aroma with suggestions of cocoa powder and a dark toffee sweetness run through with a vein of cold steeped light roast coffee bean, very delicate with any edges of harsh roast rounded off, a little nutty and woody, just a touch of earthy English-style hops, nice

d: easy, a nice coffee porter

cask into a standard pint at Bierria Paradiso, DC...enjoyed with a pizza topped with goat cheese and Aventinus onion reduction

Cask draft as part of the Grey Lodge Pub's Duck Rabbit Welcome to Philly kick off event (ABV was listed at 9%)

pitch black with a thin caramel head

nothing stood out in the nose...coffee predominant

very smooth and easy drinking...the 9% ABV was well hidden to me...subtle coffee flavors

almost no carbonation....silky smooth in the mouth

not sure of the true ABV on this one but i had 2 pints and i was feeling good afterward...no a session beer but you get your money's worth

Served fresh on cask at Tyler's Taproom in Durham.

Black with a little bubbly topping. Not a foamy or creamy head at all, just bubbles. Smell is very weak, mostly black coffee - comes out a bit more as it warms all the way to room temperature. Very one dimensional - medium black coffee. Earthy hints in a woody kind of way. Clean all the way through, almost lager-like, with a finish that isn't particularly dry nor sweet. Silky mouthfeel, but a bit thin and almost bordering watery. Underwhelmed...especially for a cask ale. Very sessionable though.

At this year's Baltic Porter rollout party, the owner-brewer of Duck-Rabbit, Paul Phillipon, told a group of local beer aficionados that D-R was finally in a position, business-wise, to "start doing fun things with beer". As we stood over two bourbon barrels laden with the new Baltic Porter, chatting about the mythical braggot languishing in his walk-in cooler, and drinking glasses of silky, caramelly, chocolatey, (not-for-sale) Coffee Porter, I understood that the brew in my hand was the proverbial tip of the iceberg of what he was talking about, and that happy, happy times were on deck at the Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery.

Apparently this midnight ruby-hued brew is one of the brewer's fun new experiments, as he's brought it out on at least a couple of special occasions. The basic beer is Duck-Rabbit's regular year-round Porter, cask-conditioned to near-perfection with a couple of types of ground dark coffee steeping inside the vessel.

The result is that the familiar toasty, mildly chocolatey brew has a sharper, more bitter edge, but actual coffee aroma and flavor is subtle. To me, the attraction of the brew is in the festive atmosphere it appears in, its silky naturally-carbonated feel, and the fact that I drank it, and a 3-year vertical of the Baltic Porter, and ate some kickass brats right there in Farmville AT the brewery. This beer was inky-dark with a thin beige head, and didn't leave much lacing on the glass, but the refills were numerous and best of all, everything to eat and drink was totally GRATIS. Looking forward to the Barleywine rollout in January '09 and another happy New Year with more "fun" beers from Duck-Rabbit.

20oz serving colored a deep black with some slight ruby highlights. The beer sports a decent off-white head that slowly diminishes and leaves no lacing. The aroma was a nice fragrant blend of cocoa and caramel with slight yeast and only a hint of coffee. The taste is powdered cocoa in the initial with slight coffee coming through in the finish, not as much of a coffee as I expected, however, there was also a slight hop presence throughout as well. The beer is nice and smooth, with a little more carbonation than I expect from a cask, but not too much. This was a wonderfully enjoyable beer, one of the best coffee porters I've had yet.

Thanks to the heads up from the gang at Duck-Rabbit, BA atsprings and I swung by the Raleigh Times for their Wednesday cask event. The night was not without difficulties, though, as when the cask was tapped, it spewed brown foam over a few middle aged women seated near the bar (needless to say, they were not happy). Then, the cask stopped pouring, so the good folks at Big Boss made a quick dash to their brewery to get a functioning spigot. Gotta love local brewery camaraderie!

Finally, we were able to order a 20 oz. of the good stuff. And 'good stuff' it certainly was. Duck-Rabbit's coffee porter poured a rich, seal brown color, and even though Raleigh Times stays dimly lit, there was no light getting through the opaque body. The inch of head was frothy and took on a cookie-dough color, and as it slowly receded, it draped attractive speckles of lacing along the inside of the pint. The aroma was perhaps less inviting because of the crowded atmosphere, and although I was able to detect that signature DR yeast and husky malt notes, the coffee was more muted than I had hoped, provided only a touch of roasted earth.

The flavor, on the other hand, delivered in a major way. It started out like DR's normal porter, with bits of powdered cocoa and chocolate malts, but quickly transitioned to a potent finish of roasted coffee and earthen, peaty hops. The bitterness, while certainly noticeable, was in no way overbearing, and the aftertaste lingered for just the right length of time. Mouthfeel was a little on the thin side, but nicely carbonated and finished with a creamy consistency. Overall, the Coffee Porter reps the DR name well. It could use a bit more coffee in the nose, but as a Porter its mildness is appreciable.