SteelbackGuy wrote: I'm not sure where this particular attack is coming from Mikey, but I must say I am at least somewhat surprised.
LOL. Len - it's not an attack. Like you said, we have different opinions on this beer.
It seemed like you were trying to make the general point that Crazy Canuck is also a hoppy US-style ale that comes in a can, and it's cheaper and 'more local' than Red Racer, so you (and perhaps others) are better off going with the Canuck. I completely disagree with this sentiment.
I'll venture a guess that most beer nerds don't feel they have to choose between the two, when they can happily purchase both, and support two great crafters. It also seemed like you were indirectly complaining about the smaller can size and more expensive price of Red Racer, which completely overlooks the fact that it's a world class IPA, selling at a reasonable price, and unlike the Canuck, it's being shipped halfway across the country. So $2.95 a can ain't bad at all, and it's certainly not high enough for me to overlook the Racer in favour of the local option (like you were suggesting). Lastly, even if we choose to perceive these beers as 'two hoppy Canadian ales,' rather than a 5% APA (apple) and 6.5% IPA (orange), the Racer is the far superior beer IMHO. Canuck is a very good pale, but Red Racer can stand up to the best US-style IPAs out there (again, my opinion).
SteelbackGuy wrote: I don't know about the variance in...formats for the Red Racer...because I have almost zero experience with the beer. They could come in several formats. I wouldn't know, and can only ask (about) which ones are available.
Well you
were part of that private order that we did with HMH, in which all of us purchased two 6 packs of the 355ml cans. And it was at Gambrinus in the same format for quite some time. I'm not aware of Red Racer ever being available in any packaged format other than the 355ml can, and Jon Walker's comments confirm this. But it's entirely possible that you didn't know about the single format, in which case I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
SteelbackGuy wrote: My personal opinion is...that I would rather pay $XX for something local and fairly tasty, as opposed to paying $XXXX for something that...may not be local, and while certainly more flavourful, may not be worth the price point given other recent additions like Smash Bomb and Mad Tom.
Fair enough. However, $0.45 more per can for the Racer does not equate to double the price of the Canuck. Also, out of the local examples that you've mentioned, only Smash Bomb compares to RR in terms of flavour (for me at least). We'll have to agree to disagree Leon - and please DO NOT take it personally.
