Duck Rabbit milk stout serves both strong and sweet

Duck Rabbit milk stout is not a beer for sipping. Calling it a beverage doesn't suffice in explaining what this beer is. Duck Rabbit milk stout is a beer you bite into. It's a meal.

Unlike the popular stout icon Guinness, Duck Rabbit makes its stout with an addition of lactose sugar, a sugar that typical beer yeast cannot ferment into alcohol. However, the contribution of lactose gives Duck Rabbit's milk stout a unique sweetness to balance out the bold, dark-beer flavors.

Duck Rabbit is known in the local beer scene for its dark-beer niche. The lightest their varieties come is an amber ale, which could sink any other amber with its richness. Duck Rabbit's flagship beer, the milk stout, does not stray from the brewery's specialty. This milk stout is the milkshake of beers.

The brewers from Farmville, NC use a generous amount of dark, toasty malts to make this beer a stout, and with the bold coffee and caramel flavors with typical stout charred notes, the hops are almost unnoticeable in aroma or taste. The lactose adds depth and sweetness, rounding off the heaviness of the malt.

Duck Rabbit is growing in popularity in North Carolina and is one of the largest breweries in the state, so this beer is found on tap in many bars and bottled at the supermarket. However, this is a beer meant to be in a pint glass. The bottles tend to be flat, and for this beer, a creamy head tops off the experience. The carbonation also helps cut the richness.

Duck Rabbit's milk stout is a beer to finish on, since every beer after will carry a syrupy stoutness. If you're a fan of dark beers, this one may throw you off guard. Unlike German Dünkels, this isn't a clean, crisp beer. Unlike Guinness, this isn't a low alcohol session bar.

Duck Rabbit is paving its own way with stouts. Instead of conforming to a standard you can't top—Guinness—our neighbors in Eastern Carolina are changing our perception of dark beer. Not all dark beers taste the same.

Duck Rabbit could be considered a gateway stout, with a sweet balance to its typical stout qualities. And like many gateway agents, Duck Rabbit's milk stout may turn you to the darker side of beer preference.