Weekly Brew Treat: Racer 5

Racer 5, an I.P.A. from Bear Republic Brewery in cali was my self indulgent treat of the week. (not saying that I limit myself to only one indulgence mind you)  You may notice that I have not reviewed anything in a while, which doesn't mean that I wasn't drinking, it just meant that I wasn't motivated to say much about what I was drinking.  Alot of Bass and standard issue brews have been occupying my time for some reason, and since everyone knows what Bass and New Castle already taste like, theres no point in writing about them.

In any case, while shopping, I decided to run over to Specs to get a few stocking stuffers for myself.  I bought the Racer 5 for 2 reasons; 1) I hadn't had it, and 2) I liked the label.  There I said it....marketing works, I liked the label.  The caveat to that, is that all the marketing in the world won't get me to drink your beer if it tasts like Kronenbourg 1664. Fortunately for me, it didn't, in fact it was marvelous!  I don't really know how to work this into the review that I have planned out in my head right now, so I'll just say it....my favorite part was seeing the small, nearly transparent hop flecks floating around in my second glass, stirred up from the bottom of the bottle. There were hops in my beer!!!

The hops were mild too, not anything strong, kick you in your face with your own shoe sort of thing, but just perfect and citrisy...is that a word?  The beer was perfectly balanced, in fact, if I didn't know better, I could have mistaken the hop flakes for some sort of mild citris pulp.  I wish I could make beer this good, and so must alot of people, because it has won medals at the Great American Beer Fest a few times.  Just super stuff, and at $3.99 for the 22oz bomber, not badly priced either.  in fact, on the Bear Republic beers page, they mention shipping rules, and Texas is one of the states they will ship to, so I might even get it cheaper directly.  Woo Hoo!