Unless Drake's have cleaned up their act considerably, and done some reformulations, there's no way their IPA would hold a candle to Racer
- Given the limitations of the brewhouse (admittedly, I haven't seen the inside of it sine 2002), there was plenty of reason to question the consistency of the product.
Racer 5, OTOH, while having gone through some minor growing pains when Richard expanded, has never been less than outstanding. We lived in Santa Rosa back when Richard was brewing Racer 5 as a "seasonal" four times a year, and were gratified to see it move into regular production and year-round availability.
Hoptown's DUIPA, although a "double" IPA, is one of the few Northern CA beers that comes close to Racer 5 (Marin IPA and RR IPA being the others). Drake's is a good enough beer, but just doesn't stand up against the competition.
Will reevaluate at the end of the month when I fly out and spend 3 nights at Barclay's in Rock Ridge sampling the local wares.
cg