White Rabbit Brewery

Long story short: I was spending a Friday evening south of Raleigh by myself.  A friend had cancelled on plans to visit another brewery due to last-minute car problems when I was already down in Fuquay-Varina, so I decided to make a night of it.  I realized that this was a perfect opportunity to try the White Rabbit, a brewery down in Angier, NC, that had been on my list for a while.  The taproom is only open on Friday and Saturday nights, so I seized my chance and zipped down the road (it's a decent way from both Raleigh and Fuquay-Varina).

First off, it's a small operation.  It's in an industrial park, and the large back room is devoted to making beer.  There's a tap room that's small, cozy, intimate.  Maybe 15 stools around a bar and a few long tables, a dart board.  The owner was there, talking about his operation.  This is definitely the epitome of the American craft brewing scene--folks passionate about beer, with an idea.  Starting small (right now, it's hard to get it on tap or in a growler in Raleigh, although that may change quite soon).  I opted for the tasting sampler (6 glasses for $6).  The beers were a lot less hoppy than a lot of craft brews, even the IPA.  I personally like that.  In my opinion, the lager stood out as very flavorful.  There were also some regulars there--each with their own favorite--some picking up a growler, others stopping by for a pint.  It was a great atmosphere and easy to strike up a conversation.

Unfortunately, there had been a power problem due to a storm (power was out in the whole area for around 24 hours) and the beers were a bit overcarbonated (the owner apologized for that.  But other than that, the beer and the atmosphere was great.  It was wonderful to get to learn about the idea, the different beers in the works, the slogan "It's time for a beer!" (great slogan for a microbrewery, by the way), etc.

Highly recommend if you're in the area!

White Rabbit Brewery definitely gets five stars in my book because it does what it does very, very well.

Sure, it's not a huge, expansive brewery and yes, it is out in Angier, NC but the beer is good, the owners are friendly and engaging, and the "Alice in Wonderland" theme is killer. What else could you possibly want from a few hours of day drinking?

I visited White Rabbit Brewery recently as part of a Living Social deal (I feel I'm forever driving an hour from Durham as a result of these impromptu purchases), and am certainly glad that I did. Sensing a theme common among NC breweries (looking at you, Aviator), White Rabbit is basically situated in a seemingly characterless industrial park type of setting. But don't let that fool you! Once inside the brewery's humble yet welcoming doors, you shall be treated to darts, corn hole (customized with the brewery's logo), plentiful drink, and rousing conversation!

The Living Social deal was pretty fantastic as it included a sampler flight of their six beers on draft, a pint of your choice, the tour, and two take home pint glasses (not filled with road beer). Given the included flight, I was indeed able to partake in all of the brews they were currently offering that day and this included a black lager, an IPA, a nutbrown ale, a Belgian dubbel, a blonde ale, and a pale ale. Oh, did I mention that the names of all the beers are somehow related to Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"? Pretty cool. Also, apparently the copyright on original images expires 75 years after the person who authored/fathered the image passes away. Thus, the White Rabbit peeps were able to readily use images from "Alice in Wonderland". There's a fun fact! But I digress...

The beers were seriously great. I'm partial to IPAs and their "10/6ths" IPA was not as hoppy as many of its counterparts, but executed well nonetheless. The nutbrown and pale ale were also solid. My favorite (and thus my pint of choice) was the Belgian dubbel ("Double Trouble") which was bitter yet smooth and masked the 9.3% ABV well as it was not overpowering at all.

After drinking our flights and grabbing our pint of choice, we followed one of the owners, Ken, into the back room and he taught us about the brewing process. Amazingly, Ken, his co-partner, and his wife are running this brewery on the weekends while maintaining other "grown up" (aka boring) jobs. However, they clearly want to get to the point that White Rabbit can be their full time gig, and it appears as though they are well on their way with 8 local restaurants and bars currently serving their brews and some bigger names (ie, two of the Tyler's Taproom locations) looking to jump onboard in the near future. It was quite refreshing to hear someone talk about a craft that they clearly love, and I found myself rooting for White Rabbit to succeed!

Bottom line: Check out White Rabbit if you happen to be in the Angier area, and/or support them by finding out who/where is currently serving their brews and go get a drink!