Central City Brewing Red Racer IPA

Central City Brewing (http://www.centralcitybrewing.com/) is one of the craft breweries from the Vancouver area that is finally getting some distribution in Alberta. Central City Brewing Company, based in Surrey brews 7 flagship beers under the title of Red Racer. Interestingly enough, Central City uses standard 355 mL cans as opposed to glass bottles. The use of cans or bottles for storing beer has become a large debate recently, however, I find no real difference between the two. However, several brands use clear bottles instead of brown or green. The increased light entering the bottle results in a skunky beer.

Central City Red Racer IPA is a classic West Coast style IPA with huge resinous hops with sweet lemon and grapefruit floral notes. At 6.5% ABV, this is not a great session beer, but has great drink ability. Clear amber body with a finger of thick off white head and mild carbonation. The aroma is sweet grapefruit and malts intermingled with bountiful hops. The flavor is predominated by the floral hops with subtle tones of grapefruit, orange and pine needles. Overall, a wonderful IPA with huge potential to become massively popular within the Canadian craft beer community. I would place the IBU's for this beer around 50, a perfect value for a hophead's session IPA. When compared to the widely popular craft IPA's in the US such as Dogfish Head 60 minute, Lagunitas IPA, Sierra Nevada or Lost Coast Indica IPA, Central City's brew holds strong.