Jan 052014
 

Last week I was the lucky recipient of a sinus infection.  Despite that I am a firm believer in the healing power of lupulins I refrained from drinking beer for several days.  Thursday evening I was on the mend so I decided to break the fast and I went to Osgood Brewing in Grandville and ordered a delicious Journey IPA.  I took one sip and…

Journey IPA - My friend Tom made this beer

Journey IPA – My friend Tom made this beer

I HATED IT!

I really hated it.

It took me a minute to figure out what was going on.  The beer in my glass didn’t taste like the well-balanced American IPA I expected. It tasted like I was sucking on a handful of hop pellets. I have been known to do that from time to time but that wasn’t my goal that evening.

I realized that my illness had completely totaled my palate.

It was the drinker that was broken, not the beer.

This event reminded me to be careful when judging a beer for the first time.  There are a lot of things that can affect your ability to taste and smell.  Some of these are:

  • Tasting other foods and drinks
  • Cigarette smoke
  • Illness
  • Hormones
  • Medicines
  • Heavy salt
  • Fatigue

I’m sure there are many others.  The important thing to remember is that each of our senses is variable.   Because of this I usually like to try a beer that I don’t think I like a couple of times.  I’ve found that they grow on me sometimes.  And sometimes it’s the drinker that is broken, not the beer.

Have you found things that cloud your perception of a beer?

 Posted by at 7:40 pm