What’s Brewing: An Interview with Paul Philippon, founder of The Duck-Rabbit Brewery

It is an exciting time for craft-beer drinkers in the Southeast. The market is expanding faster than anywhere else in the country and Southeast brewers are experimenting with a variety of styles and ingredients, making myriad tasty beers. Every month we’ll feature a craft brewery or brewpub in the Southeast and chat with the brewmaster about his or her craft. If you have any suggestions (a brewery or brewpub in the Southeast), please email Jamie by clicking here.

In August, we talked with Brian “Spike” Buckowski at Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Ga. Here is a link to the story. This month it’s Paul Philippon, founder of The Duck-Rabbit Brewery  in Farmville, N.C. We hope you enjoy it. Cheers!

The Duck-Rabbit Brewery

In August 2004, Duck-Rabbit capped its first beer. Marketed as “The Dark Beer Specialist” the brewery, 15 miles west of Greenville, offers a Milk Stout, Porter, Brown and Amber Ales. They also have four limited release seasonal beers: a Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Baltic Porter, Barley Wine and Russian Imperial Stout. Philippon, a former philosophy professor at Eastern Michigan University, has been brewing beer for 21 years. He named the brewery Duck-Rabbit after the duck-rabbit diagram he found in “Philosophical Investigations” by Ludwig Wittgenstein. The logo looks like a duck or a rabbit depending on your perspective. The beer, however, is delicious no matter how you drink it -- in a bottle or draught.

An Interview with Paul Philippon

SU: How approachable is Duck-Rabbit to the average beer drinker?

PP: All of our beers have aggressive flavors. We’re not trying to make mild beers. They are all full-flavored. It doesn’t make sense to start the conversation by apologizing for the fact that a beer has full and bold flavors, and I think that there is a segment of the population that has heard through their TV sets that full-flavored beer ought to be avoided. There have been a lot of beer ads that have said, ‘Oh you might get bitter beer face.’ If you get over the preconceptions that were put there by the glowing box in the corner of the room, I think prejudices aside we’d all want stuff to taste good.

SU: What made you think there was a demand for dark beer in a region where most beer drinkers traditionally stick to the major brands?

PP: When we started there were people that thought we were crazy. That felt to me like underestimating the adventurousness of good favor among craft beer consumers in the Southeast. Yeah, it’s not going to appeal to everybody but there are enough people who aren’t afraid to try something for the sake of its flavor. I was willing to bet my company on it and so far it’s been great.

SU: What is different about Southeast craft brewers than other regions?

PP: Right now over the past few years, brewers in the Southeast had a relatively blank slate. Ten years ago, there weren’t very many breweries in the Southeast. We’ve been able to make the market in our image to some extent. The consumers have allowed us to experiment and do wacky things like start an all-dark brewery. They’ve embraced it. I don’t know I would say there is something similar about the beers that are coming out various brewers in the Southeast. If you go to some other parts of the country, already there is a basis: American IPA, you’ve got to kind of put your spin on that style. With the Southeast, we had more of a blank canvas to start almost from zero, swimming upstream, cause we have to introduce a selection of full-flavored beers.

SU: What are your favorite Southeast craft beers?

PP: There is place in Greenville, N.C. called Hams. They have something called Pegged Leg Pale Ale. I think is just phenomenal. I am a big fan of Terrapin brewery. Their Rye Pale Ale is delicious. I love Highland Brewery in Asheville. They do a bunch of things that are great but their Gaelic Ale is something else that’s a little unique.

The Beer: Duck-Rabbit Brewery's Milk Stout

What inspired Philippon to brew it:
"The inspiration for the Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout is previous stouts that I’ve brewed. I wanted a stout that was the same as most people are familiar with. Not an Irish dry stout. Certainly that’s something I love, but that’s pretty well represented in the market. I guess from my own brewing I have loved the milk stout that I have made in the past. I thought it was really tasty."

What foods he pairs it with:
"Although I think our Milk Stout can go with a wide range of foods, I think with our beer dinner people pair that with a dessert and boy, oh, boy that goes well. I don’t really think about desserts much I think about main courses more. That might not be something I would have thought up on my own but chefs have taught me that’s a really good combination."

Our Review:
This was my first milk stout (I have to admit) and I really enjoyed it. D-B's is very dark, a trademark of the milk stout. Holding it up to the light, all you can see is a reddish ring on bottom of the glass, like the ring around the moon when it eclipses the sun. At first I thought it had a very subtle nose but after I tasted it, I began to notice other smells. I expected it to be overly sweet and milky (for some reason) but it had a bite, like semi-sweet and dark chocolate. I was pleased it wasn’t too chocolaty or sugary, but very smooth, coating the tongue like cold skim milk. I’m not sure if I’m ready to have it everyday, but I’ll definitely keep a six-pack in my fridge for certain occasions when I’m either planning to have a rich, chocolaty dessert or just craving a superb milk stout.

Duck-Rabbit is available throughout the region. For more information visit www.duckrabbitbrewery.com or call 252-753-7745