Racer 5 IPA recipe has changed...why??

Okay well racer 5 was the beer that got me into home brewing I drink or drank alot of it. The last 6 pack of real racer 5 I got was august 5th. Since august 13th the "real" racer 5 has changed. Get some for yourself and check it out.

Okay now for the question why?

according to bear republic's master brewer he said its because they ran out of 2008 cascade and columbus hops and they are now changing to the 2009 hops. I find this to be hard to believe as taste was so off. The beer was clear, no head, no aroma and flat taste. Now Im wondering was he being honest?

I believe either 2 things are going on....

1. They are having technical difficulties at the brewery but are not willing to stop production for the sake of it costing alot if they do.

2. They are attempting to make a cheaper recipe.

I honestly believe the first one but I will die if they dont make the old racer 5 anymore!

So what do you guys think about this?

Why do beers drastically change so suddenly? is this common?

It could be that you bought beer that was left in the hot wharehouse too long,or such. I cant get that where I live but I feel your pain. the love for a great beer is beautiful thing.

I've bought it from 3 separate locations all are off. 1 being a local tap house with high reputation

Hmmmm. Strange coincidence. BYO 250 clone recipe book and zymurgy have different recipes for the clone. WTF is going on? This is much too good a beer to have such shenanigans.

many brewers tweak recipes all the time, for a variety of reasons. Most frequent is to iron out season-to-season changes in hops, malt, etc. Different growing conditions mean that year to year characteristics can change (just look at alpha acid content fluctuations, for example - those fluctuations also apply to other characteristics as well). Or maybe one of the specialty malts used has been discontinued, or produced using a different process. Heck, my local water changes in character and mineral composition through the year


Really, the only beers that are 100% consistent batch to batch, year to year, and decade to decade are the light american-type lagers.

ewwww light american lagers....NO!!! haha

yea agricultural products are not consistent.... oh well

Think of each year's production of beer similar to wine and appreciate the differences. With a volatile ingredient like hops there are going to be differences in each crop. Some are so minor you won't notice a difference, but others will drastically change the taste or cause the brewer to revamp the recipe due to availability or cost.

I used to love Leinie's Honey Weiss and I swear they changed the recipe too. Was Racer 5 recently bought out by a BMC?

I had a bomber last night and it tasted the same to me. I'm on the east coast though, so it may have been produced pre-August 13th.

I'm gonna stop on the way home and pick one up too , but it been a while since I have had one. Dont know if I will notice anything different.

prosper said:

many brewers tweak recipes all the time, for a variety of reasons. Most frequent is to iron out season-to-season changes in hops, malt, etc. Different growing conditions mean that year to year characteristics can change (just look at alpha acid content fluctuations, for example - those fluctuations also apply to other characteristics as well). Or maybe one of the specialty malts used has been discontinued, or produced using a different process. Heck, my local water changes in character and mineral composition through the year


Really, the only beers that are 100% consistent batch to batch, year to year, and decade to decade are the light american-type lagers.

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silly canadiaans think their mass produced light lagers are better. please.

bottom row of serial number on bottle is date produced. post it and we will see production date. I'm just going to wait a month and hope they got the recipe close to the old one other wise ill just have to wait longer and hope the best

Say it isn't so!! Racer 5 is my favorite! I guess I'm going to pick up a sixer now and check it out...

EDIT: I just checked their web site and I swear previously the only hops the listed in the Racer 5 was Cascade and Columbus, now it's those plus Chinook and Centennial. This to me says they changed it.

cascade and columbus is my recollection as well.

I sent them an email asking what's up, we'll see what they say. I also don't remember them using any crystal malt previously. Regardless, my home brew recipe was nearly spot on with their old Racer 5, so if it did change I'll just have to keep brewing it regularly.

Brett3rThanU said:

I sent them an email asking what's up, we'll see what they say. I also don't remember them using any crystal malt previously. Regardless, my home brew recipe was nearly spot on with their old Racer 5, so if it did change I'll just have to keep brewing it regularly.

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Care to share?

BrookdaleBrew said:

Care to share?

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Sure, posted in the recipe forum a while back, here. I end up mashing at 154 and it comes out pretty good, not sure if my thermometer is off though.

so yours is spot on?... I\m doing one like this one

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=75017&start=15

I wish I knew that about your recipe before..

K well next time I make beer Ill make your clone..I need a perfect racer 5 clone now as it is dead.

haha thats u on that forum i just noticed...

boss429 said:

haha thats u on that forum i just noticed...

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yep. Not sure if I mentioned the change of yeast on Northern Brewer, but I used WLP051 instead of US05. I actually just brewed this again on Saturday, but forgot the hops at fameout! Argh... Good luck with yours, post back with some results.

Maybe the pic in that thread is just dark, but the Racer 5 I've had has always been much lighter in color than that.

BrookdaleBrew said:

Maybe the pic in that thread is just dark, but the Racer 5 I've had has always been much lighter in color than that.

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It was a cell phone pic so that explains some of it, but all the Racer 5's I've had have been pretty cloudy as well.

yea I took your advice added .5 more columbus @ 60min cuz I wanted more bittering hops, and playd around with centenial and cascade cuz I only had 2 oz cascade and didnt wanna go pay 6 dollars for 2 oz of cascade.

yea ill report everything on here after Its done cuz i had alot of help from ppl here with water chemistry and making my fermentation chamber etc..

So I just got a reply from the brewer at Bear Republic saying they've always used the 4 C's in Racer 5 (Chinook, Cascade, Columbus, and Centennial) and that the recipe has NOT changed. He also said the closest clone out there is the one published in BYO.

Their beers definitely vary. Last time I got a Racer X, it was just plain nasty. I used to buy it by the gallon.

Hmm I haven't noticed any difference recently, but maybe I haven't had the most new examples of it. I'll have to check it out. That'd be a shame if it's noticeably different.. it's one of my favorite IPAs.

direct quote from their email

"Beer is made from agricultural products, which change in nature from harvest to harvest. We have recently used up 2008 year’s harvest of Cascade and Columbus hops, and have begun using hops from 2009. As with every year, this change requires us to look at our formulation, and make adjustments to maintain the flavor components of our beer. We hope that you will bear with us while we make these changes."

Just thought I'd update. I had a Racer 5 on draft today and it was clearly the newer batch/recipe. I was so sad. I hope they get it fixed soon!

racer 5s dead to me.....stone session ale is all i have now

Just had this beer for the first time, thanks to reviews, and people mentioning it on HBT. It's a decent IPA, nothing special though. I must have the new batch though, since all the reviews I read seem to be from before august. In all fairness, the brewer did respond and say that they're going through some changes with the recipe. If the beer was really worth it, then stick with it, and see if they get it back to what it was.