I’ve paired a beer with itself, a beer with its lighter self, a beer with its hazy self, and now I am pairing an IPA with its Double IPA. Spiny Norman IPA and Spiny Norman Spiny Double IPA are beers 30 and 31 of #99BeersForTrev.
Normally, I just pop open the beers and do a tasting for the pairing, but I figured I should probably add some factual information to these pairings and did some googling. To my surprise, I found out that Right Brain describes this as a light IPA, and it is actually brewed with rice. Visually, you might be able to see why this surprised me.
Both of these beers were murky in color, with the Spiny IPA having more of an orange hue, and the double IPA more red. My photography skills leave a lot to be desired, so maybe a true comparison of the colors can be left as an exercise for the reader.
The taste of the Spiny Norman is actually quite rich and a little spicy. The spice reminds me of rye malt and gets more intense as it warms. The spice is lost in the double IPA as malty sweetness overtakes the flavor. You get some spice in the aftertaste, and fruit coming out as the beer warms. I don’t get any light or anything similar to other rice beers I’ve had. The only real match I could make between my notes and the brewery description was pine, which I could smell and they attribute to the hop profile.
